In 2020, undergraduate student workers employed at Kenyon College began organizing a union. Since then, the union, the Kenyon Student Worker Organizing Committee (K-SWOC), has filed for a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) union certification election and gone on strike four times. Kenyon refuses to recognize the union and has employed lawyers from Jones Day, a notorious right-wing union-busting firm, to fight K-SWOC. Student workers say that meanwhile, the NLRB is dragging its feet in holding a unit hearing, which would allow a union certification election to go forward; the delay on the hearing has meant that unfair labor practice charges (ULPs) K-SWOC has filed against the college have not yet been investigated by the NLRB.

Jacobin’s Charlie Muller recently spoke with three K-SWOC worker-organizers about what inspired their organizing, Kenyon’s attempts to stop the union, and how K-SWOC has been supporting and advocating for student workers despite lacking official recognition.