On Wednesday, Dec. 18, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) notified Kenyon College (PDF) that the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) has withdrawn its pending election petition. The petition, filed on Oct. 18, 2021, sought an election to determine whether all undergraduate student workers at Kenyon should be represented by the UE for the purposes of collective bargaining.
The petition was the first of its kind. The NLRB had not previously decided whether an election in a campus-wide unit of exclusively undergraduate students is appropriate under federal labor law, and K-SWOC’s petition prompted the NLRB to take up this and other important legal questions.
“We appreciate the care that everyone involved took to ensure that these questions were thoroughly considered,” President Julie Kornfeld said. “The NLRB, the student organizers, our faculty and staff supervisors, the legal experts — all were deeply committed to the integrity of the process.”
After two years of preparatory proceedings, the NLRB held a 41-day administrative hearing beginning on October 30, 2023, to consider key legal questions. Among them was whether a diverse group of student workers such as the one proposed at Kenyon belongs in a single group for collective bargaining. Nearly 100 staff and faculty participated in the hearing, providing factual information about what Kenyon student workers in various jobs do.
The NLRB was still considering the testimony when the UE withdrew its petition. No decision on the legal questions was issued.
“We have always believed that we can serve our students and community best by working directly together to improve the Kenyon experience,” Kornfeld said. “We look forward to continuing that work without constraint now that the NLRB proceedings have come to an end.”