Teamsters at RISD authorize strike over wages, health care, retirement package

Updated at 11:36 a.m.

PROVIDENCE – The unionized custodians, groundskeepers and movers at the Rhode Island School of Design have authorized a strike, Teamsters Local 251 announced on Wednesday.

The workers represented by Teamsters Local 251 authorized the strike by a 95% vote after the union said the school refused to meet a reasonable standard for wages, health care benefits and a retirement package.

The strike authorization comes nine months after the RISD workers joined the union. Sixty-five school employees are members of Local 251, the Teamsters said.

“These brave men and women are joining tens of thousands of other university workers all across the country who are standing up and demanding that their employers stop acting like Fortune 500 companies and start acting like institutions of higher learning,” said Matt Taibi, Local 251 secretary-treasurer and Eastern Region International vice president. “These workers have been underappreciated and under-compensated for far too long.”

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In statement, RISD remain hopeful that a contract can be reached, noting negations started in June. Both sides didn’t elaborate if negations are still ongoing or if and when they will restart.

“As with all of our collective bargaining negotiations, we balance many competing institutional resource needs against finite resources,” the school said it its statement. “At the same time, we make certain that RISD is a competitive employer and that our staff is well-paid, which we ensure through a continual review of RISD positions in comparison to similar positions at other institutions and organizations. Our facilities staff serve in important and vital roles at RISD and we value them as we do all of our employees.”

As of 2020, RISD has roughly 2,500 students enrolled, an endowment of $440 million, and an operating budget of $161 million, according to the Teamsters.

“Universities are supposed to ascribe to a moral standard loftier than net profit,” Regina Santos, a Local 251 member who serves on the union negotiating committee, said in a news release. “RISD says it’s ‘committed to furthering progress in Providence and Rhode Island through mutually beneficial engagement with the community.’ We are that very community, so they can start in-house.”

(UPDATE: Comment from RISD added in 5th and 6th paragraphs)