Goddard College has reached an agreement with about 35 custodial, kitchen and administrative workers who went on strike over pay and working conditions on March 24, with both sides saying workers had agreed to return to their jobs at the small college in Plainfield on Friday.
The Goddard College Staff Union said in a prepared statement on Wednesday that their members had triumphed.
Workers had picketed in raw weather in the college parking lot and at the campus’ roadside sign. Although Goddard’s café stayed open, some locals steered clear of it during the strike as a measure of support.
Danielle Kutner, cochair of the staff union, said on Thursday that the proposed agreement contains a 3 percent raise for every staff member making more than $20 an hour, and a 5.75 percent raise for those making less. Members will vote on whether to ratify the agreement in coming days.
“The goal there was to bring everybody up to $20 an hour, and we got very, very close,” Kutner said.
President Dan Hocoy thanked management, staff and faculty for maintaining services and operations on campus during the strike. About 40 students and a dozen faculty members at the low-residency college had arrived just before the strike began, and the campus is also host to a middle school and the Vermont Center for Integrative Herbalism. Workers for Cabot Creamery are living in one of Goddard’s dorms.
“I am grateful for the collaborative spirit that I have witnessed in ratifying the agreement,” Hocoy said on Thursday.
Goddard, which also has a campus in Seattle, Wash., has long struggled financially and was recently put on probation by the New England Commission of Higher Education due to concerns about its finances and governance. The school has a budget of about $7.5 million and $2 million in reserves. Last fall’s enrollment was lower than expected, and there are now just about 340 students, Hocoy said; the school recently closed its campus in Port Townsend, Wash.
Raising enrollment is a critical element of restoring Goddard’s financial stability, Hocoy has said. He added that he’s also discussing partnerships with other progressive higher education institutions as a means of strengthening Goddard.
“The Board is hopeful that partnerships like these could do much to preserve Goddard’s educational mission while providing us with institutional support,” Hocoy wrote in a prepared statement earlier this week. There is also more potential for using Goddard’s 117-acre campus as a revenue source, he noted. Cabot Creamery recently approached him about renting out a second dorm to house its workers this summer. Goddard is hosting a prom this spring and a wedding this summer.
Kutner said the union and the administration seem to share the goal of wanting to see Goddard flourish as a democratically run institution, though she said the union wants to receive better communication from the administration.
“Oftentimes we’re two constituencies that want to agree and find solutions,” she said. “The question is, how do we help Goddard grow into whatever it is supposed to be?”
This article appears in Apr 19-25, 2023.
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