UGSDW-College collective bargaining closes doors to public audience

UGSDW-College collective bargaining closes doors to public audience

By Ellianna Cierpiot cierpiot@grinnell.edu

The upcoming collective bargaining session on Thursday, Nov. 10, between the Union of Grinnell Student Dining Workers (UGSDW) and Grinnell College, will be closed to a public audience. “[W]e have come to the conclusion that the disrespectful interruptions no longer allow us to continue bargaining with an audience present,” wrote Brad Lindberg, associate vice president of institutional initiatives and enrollment, in an email to the UGSDW bargaining team.

“We didn’t think it was a disruption,” said Executive Board Member-at-Large Malcolm Galpern-Levin `24.

The UGSDW bargaining team offered to open the bargaining session with a request to the audience to keep their conduct respectful, but the College did not move from its position of holding closed sessions.

The alleged disruption occurred during the bargaining session on Thursday, Oct. 27 when several audience members laughed following a response from Frank Harty, legal counsel to the College, over a question about the definition of academic freedom. The full video of the bargaining session can be found here — the exchange regarding the definition of academic freedom starts at 53:00.

Ellen de Graffenreid, vice president of communications and marketing, wrote in an email to the S&B that, “The College’s bargaining team indicated that they hope this proposal will enable negotiators to focus on the substantive issues that will enable us to agree on a contract.”

The UGSDW bargaining team still plans to attend Thursday’s bargaining session, according to Galpern-Levin.

Thursday’s bargaining session will now be held in the Humanities and Social Studies Center S2314. A WebEx link live-streaming the event will still be available for viewing from a link in the Wednesday all-campus memo.

As student workers, all staff members of the S&B will be included in future collective bargaining. The S&B remains an independent newspaper and is committed to maintaining its integrity in reporting.

This article was updated on Nov. 8, 2022 at 9:04 p.m.