Student Worker Collective at Dartmouth (SWCD) is the union representing Dartmouth Dining Services (DDS) student workers and Undergraduate Advisors (UGAs).
Starting January 2022, we organized and won our National Labor Relation Board election unanimously. We won a 50% hazard pay raise and sick pay for all student workers during COVID terms in 2022. We bargained with the College in 2023 for a contract that won us a $21 minimum wage, a sick and mental health pay, greater say in decision making in shops, among other rights. In May 2024, we expanded our union to include UGAs, or residential advisors, by a super-majority.
As a union, we internalize the principles of democracy. Important decisions of the SWCD are made collectively in membership meetings. Student employees work together with GOLD-UE, DCLWU, SEIU-560, NH Faith & Labor, Upper Valley DSA, and more allies to devise strategies to win a democratic campus & community.
SWCD sees itself as part of the resurgent multiracial labor movement, not only in the US, but all around the world. It is anti-racist and believes in the possibility and necessity of a better world.