College students and staff at universities across Minnesota are organizing new unions

New unions are popping up at several Minnesota colleges and universities as workers organize in response to dramatic federal changes to higher education, declines in job security and inflation concerns.

Medical residents and graduate students at the University of Minnesota as well as professional staff and student workers at Macalester College in St. Paul are among those who recently formed unions, mobilizing around issues ranging from wages to workloads.

Macalester’s student worker union is believed to be the first of its kind in Minnesota.

“A big motivating factor was the many attacks on higher education that are happening right now and sort of a feeling that professional staff, because we don’t have tenure, are much more precarious,” said Jeremy Meckler, a member of Macalester’s new staff union that voted to unionize in June.

The spike in Minnesota unions reflects a national increase in organizing at universities and colleges that began over a decade ago. Union leaders said interest also surged during and after the pandemic, when some workers saw dramatic changes to working conditions made without their say or additional pay.

Nationally, the Biden administration withdrew a rule proposed by President Donald Trump in 2021, leading to an uptick in unionization among student workers at private colleges in recent years.

“All around the country we’re seeing student workers and faculty and staff that are demanding a say in how their institutions are run and how their labor is valued,” said Megan Dayton, president of Minnesota Association of Professional Employees (MAPE), which Macalester staff joined.

But a change in state law in 2024 opened the door for two new unions to form at the U.

“It’s really important that we are able to practice medicine at our very best, and without being able to discuss our workplace and our working conditions, that’s not really possible,” said Dr. Kaitlin McLean, who helped organize the Committee of Interns and Residents, a U union that formed a month ago. “Without a union, that’s not really possible.”

A spokesperson with the U said the school “values its relationship with labor-represented employees” and aims to “reach a fair and reasonable agreement” in union contract negotiations.

At the U, graduate students formed a union almost two years ago, signing their first contract last January. This was the sixth attempt to start such a union there; the first was in the ’70s. Their 3,000 to 4,000 members joined forces with the United Electrical Workers, a national union.

“For a long time there’s been kind of this conception that graduate work is just academic and we’re not workers,” said Amy Harbourne, who is on the union’s bargaining team. “Truly, the university kind of exists on our labor.”

In their recent contract, the graduate students were able to create a $27 minimum wage at the U; previously, wages ranged from $17 to $30, Harbourne said. They also got the U to cover 10% more of health insurance premiums for spouses, ensure access to gender-affirming and reproductive care, and create a grievance procedure, she said.

“We had a very strong first contract, given that we have been trying to do this for the last 40 years,” she said.

Now they’re lobbying the U to include fellowship recipients in the union; that decision could eventually go to the state for arbitration, Harbourne said.

There seems to be “no end in sight” for union organizing, especially in higher education and health care, said Jamie Gulley, the president of SEIU Healthcare, a Minnesota- and Iowa-based union that McLean’s union is part of. He said unions can create better employee retention rates and improve students’ experiences.

McLean’s union has 1,000 members. McLean, an internal medicine and pediatrics resident, works at seven different hospitals. Residents and interns can work up to 80 hours a week but can’t average more than that over the course of a month, said McLean, a member of the organizing committee and team that will start bargaining a contract in August.

She wants to make sure hospitals abide by the rule, she said, along with ensuring workers’ time off is restful and mental health support is available.

At Macalester, two new unions have formed in the past six months, with 1,100 student workers voting to join the Macalester Undergraduate Workers’ Union in February. Then over 215 staff members — including workers in IT, academic advising and financial aid — voted to join MAPE, which also represents some workers at Minnesota State Colleges and Universities.

Neither union has signed a contract yet. Organizers for both unions said there was some opposition from Macalester. “The administration resisted pretty heavily,” Dayton said.

Meckler, who is on the organizing committee, said members want to solve various employment problems, such as equity issues with workloads and pay. There’s also been lots of staff turnover since COVID.

“There’s a few pretty generous benefits programs at Macalester,” he said. “We want to guarantee those even if Macalester is facing external threats.”

Michelle Benson, a Macalester spokeswoman, noted that the school has long worked with unions. She also said only 53% of staff voted to unionize in the new union, but the school will bargain in good faith to reach agreements with both.

Moxie Strom, an incoming junior at Macalester, worked as an office assistant last year and plans to apply for student jobs this year. She helped form the union last year.

“People felt very fired up about it,” Strom said.

She said student workers worry about rent and other expenses increasing and jobs outside of school are becoming harder to find.

Strom said the union wants to address issues such as who can work student jobs, scheduling for work-study students, clarifying job responsibilities and improving working conditions — including having fans and seats so they can sit down — in the cafeteria.

“Macalester definitely made it more difficult for us to organize by not voluntarily recognizing us and by not letting us organize a full collective,” Strom said.

Benson said that just a quarter of student workers actually cast a ballot, though Strom said 87% of those who did voted yes. The growth of unions in higher education gives her hope, Strom said.

“Young people,” she said, “are ... looking for ways to have power and make a difference in our lives.”