Oregon State University’s LaborBeavs launched a campaign supporting the formation of a labor union. Their goal is to secure a living wage for student workers.
OSU Student Workers is a student-led initiative organizing to become an undergraduate labor union on campus. One of the main goals is to increase student worker wages. According to OSUSW, current wages are not keeping up with the rising costs of living in Corvallis.
The LaborBeavs party is led by Associated Students of Oregon State University President Kayla Ramirez and Vice President Masha Mogylevsky.
LaborBeavs is also supported by ASOSU Student Fee Committee Chair (At-Large) Kieran Hostetler-McLaughlin and senate members Efimya ‘Mya’ Kuzmin, Jess Sicilia, Dawson Yang and Lucas Perryman-Deskins.
LaborBeavs campaigned by advocating for a “living wage” for “1,000+ student jobs” and lowering student fees.
The LaborBeavs party slate also made campaign promises to use student fees to democratize the voting process and open it to all students.
In a January 21 social media post, OSUSW shared the reasoning behind undergraduates forming a union. They claimed that OSU “undermines” student workers and that the student government is not enough to help advocate on their behalf.
“Last summer, almost 90% of OSU students voted in favor of a referendum to raise the base pay of over 1,000 student workers,” the OSUSW post stated. “The Board of Trustees has continued to delay the ratification of this vote.”
OSUSW’s post made further claims that students are experiencing wage theft. “Multiple student fee-funded departments approved budgets to raise their base student pay to at least 16.35(dollars)/hour.” However, OSUSW continued, the students in these departments did not receive a wage increase. The post did not name these departments or students.
OSUSW highlighted in the post that denying raises means students fall behind financially, increasing hardship.
ASOSU is not enough, OSUSW stated in the post, because they have “limited authority,” and ultimately, OSU’s administration is the final deciding factor.
The post claimed that OSU’s administration “obstruct(ed) democratic process” and “illegally closed public meetings, withheld budget data from student officials and filed false conduct reports against students.”
When asked about the allegations made on social media, Media Relations Director Misty Edgecomb did not address them directly. Edgecomb connected The Barometer with Vice President for Student Affairs Dan Larson.
In an email response, Larson stated that OSU wanted to address recent developments with ASOSU student leadership.
“Working groups, made up of student leaders and collaborating with university staff, have relaunched for the summer and will continue working toward developing structures and practices that can ensure effective student government for the coming year,” Larson said. “Efforts to develop a revised constitution are ongoing in partnership with a third-party consultant who will be conducting an on-campus visit and public session on Thursday, July 24.”
This meeting set forth an action plan to reestablish the full operation of ASOSU.
“Plans will be shared on the ASOSU website soon to provide an update on goals and timelines,” Larson said. “With continued effort from student leaders, I expect that OSU’s student government will be able to resume operations by the end of August.”
The OSUSW’s call to action for fellow Beavs to get involved and become informed about how to join the OSU undergraduate student union remains a pinned post on their social media.
The caption of the post reads: “Building truly independent power for students to make a change starts with all of us.”
Students can learn more about the union and the work being done by visiting join.osusw.org
