Our Mission:
We are a group of Bates College employees of all backgrounds working together to ensure that all Bates employees have a fair say at our institution, for ourselves and for our students. We are forming our union because we want the College to fulfill its mission and succeed, and we know that cannot happen if we do not have a seat at the table. To preserve what we love about working at Bates and create the positive changes we need in our workplaces, we need a meaningful voice in the decisions that affect us at work. Forming our union today will ensure a better future for generations of Bates employees, students, and community members.
Our mission is to build a strong, unified voice to improve labor conditions at the College and champion the social, economic, physical, and mental wellbeing of all Bates employees—especially the most under-compensated and vulnerable among us.
Over the past year, too many of our coworkers have left due to dissatisfaction, low pay, and poor working conditions at the College. Losing so much talent and expertise has added more work for those of us who remain, diminishing our capacity to provide quality learning and living conditions for our students. By forming our union, we establish a means to improve these conditions and therefore protect the Bates we all know and love.
Furthermore, this past year it has become apparent that Bates cannot advance—nor realize—its stated diversity, equity, and inclusion goals unless we all have a real seat at the table. By forming our union, we pledge to demand real accountability from ourselves and the College to enact equity and justice in our collective bargaining agreements, our workplace, and our community.
We, the Bates Educators & Staff Organization, are a “wall-to-wall” union, which means that anyone who receives a paycheck from Bates College—and is not management, tenured or tenure-track faculty, or a campus safety officer—is eligible to join our union. We invite the full breadth of eligible employees at Bates College to join us. As a diverse group of workers, united we gain a meaningful voice to participate in problem-solving as equals. That way, we can ensure that Bates honors its promise to our students and fulfills its mission of scholarship and stewardship.
You are not alone. Together, we can make a difference by forming our union.
-BESO Organizing Committee