Dartmouth Union 560 members will meet Wednesday to decide the fate of the College's latest contract offer.
"What they have in front of them is our final, final offer," Roger Brock, Dartmouth's director of human resources, said.
The 372 members of the local chapter of the Service Employees International Union -- comprised of custodial staff, food service employees, grounds crew and heating plant workers -- are presently working without a contract, which expired June 31.
The issues of contention are job security and a reduction in dental benefits.
Earl Sweet, the president of Union 560, and the union's negotiating committee are recommending that the "rank and file" turn down the College's offer.
"This is not about money," said Sweet, "it's about job security."
Sweet fears that the college will convert many 12 month jobs to nine month ones, thus eliminating three months of income for the employees.
Union concerns stem from the recent conversion of eight non-union member jobs from 12 to nine month positions, Sweet said.
But Brock said the union's fears are unfounded.
"They've made something out of nothing," Brock said. "We have no intention of reducing jobs. Those employees who were reduced to nine month positions were hired under that stipulation."
Brock said he doesn't see the necessity in addressing the 12 to nine month job conversion in the language of the contract.
"In the 26 years of the union's existence we have never asked any of the union employees to reduce the number of months they work. Right now, the employees have more work than they know what to do with."
"However," Brock said, "we have no idea what the financial state of affairs will be, in say, three years. We don't have a crystal ball."
But Sweet said, "We're not asking them to give up their right to run the college, we just want job security."
There is also the issue of dental insurance. The college has, in the past, made a $300 contribution to the dental insurance premiums of all employees, union or not. Under the present contract, this contribution would be lost.
However, the $300 contribution was taken from all college employees in January of 1994 as a cost-saving measure. The cut affected 2,700 employees, but the union was covered under their contract and was not affected by the cut.
The withdrawal of this $300 contribution to the dental plan is "an effort to bring the union workers up to status with the rest of the employees," explained Brock.
Although this cut is a major focus of protest by the employees, Sweet said that job security in writing would be enough for him to recommend ratification by the rest of the union.
"We were willing to trade the $300 dental for job security, but it was not acceptable," Sweet said.
If the "rank and file" do not ratify this contract, Sweet said he hopes to get back to the negotiating table soon with a federal mediator.
However, Brock reiterates that this contract is the college's "final, final offer. We've gone as far as we're going to go."
"They've said that two times before," responded Sweet, "we don't take it as a serious threat."
The union is planning two protests: one Friday in front of Parkhurst and the other on Oct. 3. Sweet said a strike is unlikely.
"We work for the students, and we don't want to hurt them in any way. We've gotten a lot of support from them," said Sweet. "We don't feel the students are getting their money's worth at Dartmouth in a lot of ways, we certainly don't want to contribute to this."
Sweet said he would not recommend a strike, but the rank and file has the last say.
Brock also said he did not expect a strike. "The union members are very dedicated to the mission of Dartmouth College."
The union will be working without a contract until an agreement is reached. This means the union must collect its own dues rather than have the College automatically taking it out of the members' pay checks. The union employees also have no seniority rights and no grievance procedure without a contract.
The meeting for ratification will take place Wednesday at 2 p.m. in Webster Hall.
