The three-year agreements include hourly wage increases for roughly 110 workers with SEIU Local200United.
Robert Dickson, a carpenter at the private college in Annandale-on-Hudson, says its the first time Bard’s “environmental services” specialists, or janitorial staff, and its building and groundskeepers have bargained together on a deal.
"It feels great. It feels like we definitely achieved something," says Dickson. "It has been long, it's been quite intense at some times. Overall, we're satisfied, and we can move on now."
Dickson says both groups sought wage increases to keep up with high inflation and better compete with other colleges in the region. Effective immediately under the new agreements, the starting rate for environmental services workers will jump from $15.50 an hour to $19 an hour, with another increase to $19.50 an hour by 2025. According to the union, that means about 45 environmental services workers will automatically receive raises between $2.25 an hour and $3.50 an hour, retroactive to July 1.
Building and grounds workers, meanwhile, will receive an 11 percent wage increase over the next three years. That’s a significant jump from what the college had proposed in a counteroffer earlier this month. Under that plan, Bard suggested starting janitorial staff at $18.50 an hour with a 2.5-3 percent wage increase for building and grounds workers.
Coleen Alexander, vice president for administration at Bard, spoke with WAMC on October 2.
"We looked at about 12 different schools within a 100-mile radius, including all of the SUNY schools," she explained. "This is very much on par with other colleges, or more.”
In a new statement to WAMC, Bard says it is pleased to have reached an agreement with both parties, adding it looks “forward to moving forward and working together to ready the campus for winter and beyond.”
Both parties engaged a mediator from the Federal Mediation Conciliation Service to help with the last three sessions leading up to the October 23 ratification deadline. Dickson says building and grounds workers unanimously authorized a strike on October 11, but it never got to that.
Bridget Maple, a Bard College gardener and vice chair of its building and grounds union, says healthcare was a key sticking point during the negotiations. Bard initially wanted workers to contribute more to their health insurance — even those under individual coverage plans, which Maple says have typically been covered by the college.
"What the membership told us from the beginning was that healthcare was number one. And that was really our big battle, was to keep healthcare prices the same," says Maple. "And once the college took that off the table, as far as negotiations go, then we could really have a serious conversation and negotiate wages better."
Maple says the new contracts keep health insurance contributions the same, maintaining college-funded health insurance plans for individuals in both departments.
Overall, Dickson calls the contracts a “historic” moment for Bard and for the two unions, which he hopes will continue bargaining together in the future. He credits constant communication between the workers, union solidarity, and community support for the outcome — at one point, he says students rallied on campus in support of staff.
"We had a lot of people pledging their assistance and help, should things come to a head with the college, which it didn’t," he adds. "But there was a lot of community-wide support for us. I just want to thank those people for their support."
