"When I'm president, unions will have their voices heard," Gov. Bill Richardson said. "I will appoint a union member as my Secretary of Labor."
Richardson, the democratic presidential hopeful for the 2008 election from New Mexico, visited Hanover to speak to members of the Service Employees International Union at their Summer Labor Studies Institute on Saturday. In his speech, Richardson pledged continued support of organized labor if elected president.
Richardson also reminded the gathered SEIU representatives of his past commitment to unions.
"One of my first acts as Governor was to restore collective bargaining rights to our hardworking state employees," he said. "Now all public employees have the right to negotiate fair contracts ... including fair share."
In addition to Richardson's speech and other programmed events, the SEIU conference included a rally on the Green in support of the Hanover Inn's tipped employees. According to Kevin Bean, a union steward of the SEIU and lead chef and saucier at the Hanover Inn, the rally was part of ongoing negotiations between the SEIU and Dartmouth College over disability and vacation pay for tipped employees at the Hanover Inn.
"We're just looking for a decent hourly wage for when they're not working," he said.
Currently, tipped employees are compensated $3.10 per hour when they take paid vacations or short-term disability leave, the same hourly wage they receive when they work at the Hanover Inn. Bean noted that the lack of tips during employees' absence from work hurts them financially.
"We've had people go out on short-term disability, and they had to go two months on a very small paycheck," he said. "We want a decent hourly wage for vacations and short term disability."
Bean was not able to discuss the effect that the rally might have had on the ongoing negotiations.
Richardson encouraged the SEIU in its ongoing negotiations with the Hanover Inn and Dartmouth College, according to the Valley News.
"I want to associate myself with your union, and express my solidarity with you, your fight at the Hanover Inn," he said.
Dartmouth Dining Services Cashier and SEIU member Susie Dexter met Richardson when he briefly visited Food Court.
"I was impressed that he came in here and was involved in such a way," she said. "He seemed like a very nice man, I thought."