PROVIDENCE – Two weeks after holding a one-day strike, union employees at the Rhode Island School of Design walked off the job again Monday due to stalled contract negotiations with the college.
This time, workers will strike for the foreseeable future, and it is unclear when the two sides will return to the bargaining table.
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Learn MoreTeamsters Local 251 represents more than 60 RISD employees who are custodians, movers and grounds-services staffers at the arts college. Local 251 Principal Officer Matthew Taibi told Providence Business News on Monday that RISD “has not changed” from its last contract offer – which RISD said on March 23 included providing each union employee with an average $2,300 payment retroactive to July 1. The union previously rejected that offer.
Taibi said the union recently amended its proposal to RISD that included reduced benefits, and RISD rejected the union’s wage proposal. He added the union was also hoping to have again a federal mediator help the two sides come to an agreement after the one-day strike, but that has not happened.
“So they’re out on strike now,” Taibi said. “We’ll see. We’re willing to have some discussions on [the new proposal], but we’re waiting for an actual change in the college’s proposal, which they have not done in quite some time.”
RISD spokesperson Jaime Marland told PBN in an email Monday that the union reduced its demand for benefits. However, that reduction was “still excessive and would have created inequities with other unionized and nonunionized staff across campus,” Marland said.
Se confirmed that RISD rejected the union’s counterproposal verbally on March 27 and in writing two days later. Marland also said Local 251 has not moved on wage demands “in any meaningful way.”
“They have made no changes to excessive wage increases from prior proposals,” Marland said.
Marland said in a statement Sunday afternoon that the union has continued to seek benefits and wage increases “that go well beyond what RISD considers fiscally responsible or that would allow us to maintain equity across the college.” The arts college, Marland said, recently announced that its tuition and board charges will increase by 4%. For RISD to keep its tuition increase as low as possible, discretionary operating costs in some areas will decrease by approximately 3%, Marland said.
“RISD has nine unions total and many other nonunionized staff, and we must ensure fiscally responsible compensation packages that maintain equity across the college,” Marland said.
Marland also said RISD “did not receive a formal” response from the union on the college’s final offer from mid-February. The response RISD received, Marland said, was a “clear indication the union was unwilling to have productive discussions” about wages and benefits. RISD’s proposals related to benefits, Marland said, include:
- Retirement contributions of 8% of total earnings, regardless of whether an employee individually chooses to contribute or not.
- High-quality medical coverage on a sliding cost scale where, with respect to the striking union, RISD pays on average 90% of the cost for either an employee only or a family coverage selection.
- Time-off benefits including four weeks of paid vacation accrued from the date of hire (which can be used before it’s been accrued) and additional paid time-off benefits including 14 paid holidays, eight sick days, two personal days, and paid parental and bereavement leave.
RISD’s final offer remains on the table for the union to consider, Marland said, and she added that the burden is on the union to engage in “reasonable discussions.”
Marland also said the arts college respects the workers’ right to strike, but it “will not resolve this matter.”
Marland added that RISD does not expect the strike to impact access to college buildings and resources for students. She said RISD has maintained normal operations with “existing staff support” and services have not been impacted “to any great extent.”
(Updates: Comment from RISD updated through out.)