The new contract, set to expire in Spring 2024, establishes improved minimum wage, a new paid holiday and additional career path opportunities.
Effective on Nov. 15, LiUNA Local 386 workers union and Vanderbilt agreed to a new contract. It includes an increased minimum wage, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (MLK Day) as a paid holiday and more defined career path opportunities for its workers.
Per David Rutledge, assistant business manager of the Southeast Labor District Council and negotiation committee member, the new contract raised the current minimum wage for campus workers from $12.75 per hour to $16.50. In 2019, Hidden ‘Dores surveyed 35 dining workers, of which 95 percent did not feel that their wages were sufficient for their living needs. In Tennessee, there is no state minimum wage law, meaning that the state is subject to the Fair Labor Standards Act which enforces the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour.
“There will also be further increases [in wages] in the July of next year and the July of 2023,” Rutledge said.
MLK Day is now a paid holiday for campus workers, something both Vanderbilt and the union proposed on the first day of the contract negotiations, per Rutledge. At Vanderbilt, classes were canceled for students and faculty in observance of MLK Day for the first time in Spring 2011.
The contract also creates more higher-paid managerial positions, which would allow current workers to advance further in their careers.
“It was the university that proposed...
Welcome to Reality Check, NewsGuard’s nonpartisan newsletter that tracks the false claims and conspiracy theories that shape our world — and who’s behind them. Please support us by becoming a premi...