ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON – Bard College’s approximately 110 service and maintenance workers in its Building & Grounds and Environmental Services departments, represented by Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 200United, voted overwhelmingly Monday to ratify their contracts, ending months of negotiations with the college administration and averting a potential strike by the 60 Bard building maintenance and grounds workers.
Workers in Bard’s Environmental Services Department, who clean the dormitories and academic buildings, won historic hourly increases over the life of the agreement, including a nearly 23 percent increase to base pay effective immediately. The start rate will rise from $15.50 an hour to $19.00 immediately and to $19.50 in 2025.
Approximately 45 SEIU members in Environmental Services will receive minimum raises between $2.25 and $3.50 an hour immediately upon ratification, retroactive to July 1.
Building & Grounds workers won an 11 percet wage increase over the three-year agreement.
April Pulver, an environmental services specialist at the liberal arts college for more than 30 years and a union negotiating committee member, celebrated the agreement, “This is the best contract we have ever won. I’m glad my fellow members voted overwhelmingly in favor of ratification. I’m proud of my coworkers for standing together in solidarity to secure a fair agreement that recognizes our hard work at Bard College. This would not have been possible without every single one of us standing together in unity for a fair contract.”
The college initially demanded steep concessions on individual and family health care insurance and offered only modest raises that did not reflect the higher cost of living in the Hudson Valley, along with other concessionary demands.
After months of negotiations and a unanimous strike authorization vote by the SEIU members in the Building & Grounds department, the Bard administration finally dropped all of its…
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