Andy Stern, SEIU International President (Courtesy of SEIU Press Kit)

An employee of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 615 has been working to solicit student support for unionized employees at Boston College even though the contract between BC and its union-employees prohibits advertising negotiations between BC and the Union.

The AHANA ( for African-American, Hispanic, Asian, and Native-American) Leadership Council (ALC), confirmed that SEIU Local 615 employee Howard Ryan approached them to garner support for the unionized employees’ cause. Alexandra Heinz, the ALC’s co-director of political action and education, said that Ryan approached the ALC regarding their support for the Union in the ongoing dispute.

After meeting with Ryan, the Global Justice Project, the College Democrats, and university officials, Heinz and ALC President Earl Edwards decided to co-sponsor a November 2nd teach-in to shed light on the unionized workers’ position in the ongoing labor negotiations.

Ryan has also met with Kathleen Sellers, a BC graduate student who has been organizing student support for BC’s unionized workers. However, Sellers insisted that Ryan never asked her to carry out any specific task on the Union’s behalf. She described Ryan as a “conversation partner,” adding that “[Ryan] has never explicitly asked me to do anything except on one occasion, which was to explain, as a student of Catholic social teaching, why I found the Boisi discussion on Caritas in Veritate particularly interesting.”

Whether SEIU employees’ speaking to student leaders is actually a violation of Article 14, which prohibits “strikes, stoppages, lockouts, picketing, banners, or any advertisements concerning any matter in dispute between the University and the Union or the employees,” is currently disputed.

Robert Lewis, associate vice president for human resources and BC’s representative in the negotiations, was unaware that the SEIU had contacted student leaders helping the Union. Lewis believes that Ryan’s actions are a clear violation of Article 14. “It is a form of advertising the dispute. €The Union has agreed to extend the contract.€ That means all of its terms and conditions.€The Union cannot be selective about which articles of the contract they agree to extend.”

Lewis did not clarify what if any action BC would take against the Union in light of the SEIU’s contacting students about the dispute. He only added that BC “will discuss this with the Union leadership.”

In his lone statement to The Observer, Ryan said, “We believe all of the Union’s actions are in compliance with the contract.” Ryan declined to elaborate.

Ryan’s discussion with the ALC and BC Students for Worker Justice is not the first allegation that the SEIU violated Article 14. The SEIU and BC Students for Worker Justice held a public gathering outside Hillside on October 26th. Lewis contended that this act was also prohibited under Article 14, but he also noted that the Union disagreed. Sellers also disagreed with Lewis’ position.

Language from Article 14 can also be found in SEIU Local 615 contracts with Boston University, MIT, Tufts University, and Brandeis University among other universities in the greater Boston area.

Negotiations have stalled over BC’s proposed removal of Article 18 from the contract, which forbids BC from hiring outside contractors to perform union-labor. The University contends that it only wants to repeal Article 18 in order to hire outside workers to clean up after athletic events in order to save money. However, the SEIU believes that removing Article 18 would allow BC to phase out unionized labor on campus. Lewis stated that negotiations are moving slowly.

The SEIU represents 2.1 million healthcare, public services, and property services workers in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. The SEIU donated over $60 million to President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign, and is currently lobbying for the proposed healthcare reform bill in congress.