On Tuesday, April 14, Macalester’s faculty approved a resolution in support of staff and student union bargaining efforts. The resolution, which passed with one vote opposed, expressed the faculty’s opinion to encourage the administration to move “swiftly and with care to reach fair contracts with the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees (MAPE) bargaining unit and the Macalester Undergraduate Workers UnionUnited Auto Workers (MUWUUAW) bargaining unit, preferably before the end of the spring semester.”
The resolution expresses the opinion of the faculty, but does not cue any action. Neither bargaining process will be concluded by the end of the semester.
Chair and Associate Professor of Educational Studies Brian Lozenski drafted the opinion document and put it on the meeting’s docket.
“We wanted to make sure that faculty were aware of the collective bargaining negotiations that were happening, and also just recognize that our work is inseparable from the work of our student and staff colleagues,” Lozenski said.
Vice President of Administration and Finance Patricia Langer was called to speak at the faculty meeting after the resolution was raised, where she explained that, as both negotiations are creating new contracts, the process will take time.
She reiterated this information in an email to The Mac Weekly, writing that “Negotiating a first contract is a detailed and timeintensive process. While we understand that some people may wish to see a fast bargaining process, our focus is on reaching an agreement that is fair, responsible, and sustainable over the long term. A stated timeline cannot be determined, particularly this early in the negotiations process.”
The single nay vote came from Chemistry Professor and acting Department Chair Keith Kuwata, who was honored earlier in the meeting with the 2026 Thomas Jefferson award. He explained that he believes the administration is working as efficiently as they can in bargaining, and that he has a general opposition to resolutions that don’t produce tangible change.
Jeremy Meckler, the coordinator for the Department of Media and Cultural Studies, and a member of the staff union on campus, the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees at Mac (MAPE at Mac), expressed excitement over the faculty’s support of the union work on campus.
“It’s wonderful to feel that faculty are in support of swift and careful negotiations for getting our first contract, and see both our treatment and our work as valuable,” Meckler said, reflecting on the faculty vote.
Following the faculty meeting, MAPE at Mac members tabled at the Campus Center, handing out shirts, pins and other memorabilia.
Adam Van der Sluis ’11, a senior gift officer at Macalester and a member of MAPE at Mac’s bargaining committee, also expressed positive sentiments about the faculty vote, specifically around the language MUWU-UAW’s addition brought forward by DeWitt Wallace Professor of Geography Bill Moseley. f inal two bargaining sessions of the semester took place on Friday, April 3 and Friday, April 10.
“I appreciate [that] there was a lot of thought around an amendment of … wanting [bargaining] to go quickly, but also ‘with care,’” Van der Sluis said. “I appreciate that they’re supportive and being thoughtful about the whole process.”
Van der Sluis echoed Langer’s statement that he does not expect MAPE at Mac’s bargaining process with Macalester to conclude by the end of the spring semester, and he is prepared to continue bargaining during the summer.
MUWU has not yet brought all of their proposals to the bargaining table.
MUWU-UAW’s final two bargaining sessions of the semester took place on Friday, April 3 and Friday, April 10.
On April 10, the union and the college signed their first two tentative agreements of the bargaining process. The first agreement states that MUWU-UAW and Macalester will meet to discuss any issues that come up after the contract is signed, at the request of either party. The agreement does not provide a timeline on when these discussions will take place.
The second agreement protects both the union and the college from discrimination or retaliation based on any identity or status that federal, state and local law and/or Macalester policies protect. MUWU-UAW added the portion about Macalester policies, given what MUWU bargaining committee member Xavier Honer ’28 described as the country’s “shifting legal landscape.”
“The concern we had with the law was that it could be rolled back,” Honer said. “Now, we have a formal say that will prevent any rollback of any policies. We don’t think Macalester will [roll back policies], but now we know that MUWU won’t let that happen.”
During the final bargaining sessions, the union and the college discussed the inclusion of off-campus (OCSE) and stipended student workers in the bargaining unit.
This question has been the subject of ongoing debate. In Jan.uary 2025, to avoid facing an National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) hearing in order to hold a union election, MUWU-UAW and Macalester came to a consensus about the limits of MUWU-UAW’s bargaining unit. In this consensus, known as a stipulated agreement, the two parties excluded OCSE workers from the bargaining unit and said they would wait to decide on stipended workers’ inclusion.
“Macalester’s position is to bargain consistent with that determination — not to expand or contract the unit beyond what the NLRB has recognized,” Vice President of Administration and Finance Patricia Langer wrote in an email to The Mac Weekly.
“Student employees who receive a stipend are a different class of employees,” she added. “Positions that are compensated by stipend are structured differently and have different expectations than hourly employees. Our negotiations are focused on common experiences for those student employees who are paid on an hourly basis.”
MUWU-UAW, on the other hand, believes that OCSE and stipended student workers should be part of their bargaining unit. The union invited an OCSE student worker, two Bonner scholars and an RA to testify during April 3rd and 10th’s bargaining sessions. These workers argued that they are part of the same “community of interest” — an NLRB standard for an appropriate bargaining unit — as other Macalester student workers.
“Large swaths of these classifications of workers [OCSE and stipend workers] want to be part of the union,” Honer said. “I think that can get lost in the conversation here, and that shouldn’t get lost.”
MUWU-UAW and Macalester also discussed training on April 10th. On Feb. 20, the union had proposed that all student workers receive timely paid training. The college countered on April 3, with a proposal that the college “may require student employees to attend training programs as determined by the Employer,” according to the language of the proposal. These training sessions would be paid.
“Our proposal focused on providing the necessary training to enable student employees to perform their jobs,” Langer wrote.
Honer thought that Macalester’s counter “to put it lightly, did nothing.” MUWU-UAW countered, proposing that student workers be trained for all their assigned tasks within a reasonable time of hire. Their counter kept the college’s language suggesting that training sessions “be compensated in accordance with applicable law.”
Across their bargaining sessions this semester, MUWU-UAW has brought forward all but one of their proposals on mandatory, non-economic bargaining subjects. It plans to introduce economic proposals and the mandatory non-economic proposal on bargaining unit work in the future. Macalester has brought forward some of their own clauses, though it has mostly responded to the union’s proposals.
