Student Labor Action Coalition – The Oberlin Review

Mercy Allen Nurses Win Wage Increases

May 3, 2019

Nurses at Mercy Allen Hospital voted to approve a new contract agreement with the hospital that will result in continuous wage increases over the next three years. The ratified deal comes after the Ohio Nurses Association created a petition last week accusing Mercy of underpaying and understaffing its nurses. Following this, the ONA and Mercy administrators negotiated a proposal on April 26. It will go into effect retroactively April 1 and affects approximately 30 nurses. “The new agreement is similar to the old [agreement],” Haley Poggiali, a spokesperson for the Mercy Allen Hospital nurses, wrote in an email to the Review. “The primary negotiations focused on maintaining pay increases throughout the durati...

AAPR Prompts Concern Among Union Supporters

April 12, 2019

Oberlin is considering eliminating over 50 staff lines — a decision which could impact up to 40 current employees — as part of the Academic and Administrative Program Review. This is part of just one of the AAPR steering committee’s areas of recommendation meant to address Oberlin’s structural budget deficit. The steering committee referenced Oberlin’s exorbitant employee costs as a reason for the area of recommendation, claiming that 63 percent of Oberlin’s operating budget goes toward em...

Constructive Institutionalism Includes Diverse Perspectives

Editorial Board

May 25, 2018

Oberlin has reached many milestones this year — some deserving of celebration. Among those was the beginning of Carmen Ambar’s presidency. Ambar has worked to be more transparent and communicative than former President Marvin Krislov, whose time at Oberlin was marked by campus tension and administrative opacity. Ambar’s presidency has begun at a time of great financial uncertainty for Oberlin. To her credit, Ambar has made an effort to be candid about those challenges, carrying out a series of campus presentations regarding the College’s financial outlook this winter. She has also called upon all of us — students, staff, faculty, and alums — to be Oberlin’s stewards, institutionalists concerned not only with Oberlin...

CDS Self-Management Would Improve Accountability, Sustainability

Michael Kennedy

May 11, 2018

From a student perspective, it appears that Oberlin College’s Campus Dining Services model has been failing. The closure of the Rathskeller as a meal option in spring of 2017, the limitation of meal options for the class of 2021, the upcoming closure of Dascomb Dining Hall, and the planned closure of DeCafé’s popular sandwich deli line all support this conclusion. I believe that students have legitimate reasons to be upset by dining changes, but they are not the ones most impacted by these decisions. As a result of the planned changes, employees will be losing their jobs, and many others are considering quitting rather than working at Stevenson Dining Hall. Both Bon Appétit Management Company and the College h...

SLAC Calls for Worker Self-Management in Dining Services

Jeeva Muhil, Eliza Guinn, Michael Kennedy, Student Labor Action Coalition

May 5, 2017

To the Editors: Broader Context: Since May Day is a national day of action for labor rights in the U.S., members of the Student Labor Action Coalition and other interested students chose May 1 to make a stand for workers’ rights on campus. We wanted to both make a statement on campus while also recognizing the increasing attacks on labor that have continued for decades. The Trump administration’s nomination of Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta and its targeting of immigrant and specifically non-white workers further emphasize the need for solidarity within the labor movement both in Northeastern Ohio and nationwide. Historically, the labor movement has privileged exclusively white men over the rest of the ...