A supermajority of student dining-hall workers at UC Santa Barbara have officially agreed to file for union recognition as the Student Dining Labor Union, which will be the first undergraduate union for dining-hall workers on a University of California campus.
“This is an inspiring moment for us,” said Jasmine Rebollar, a student worker at De la Guerra Dining Commons, one of four major dining halls at UCSB. “Student dining-hall workers have spent 18 months reaching out to our coworkers to form this union, and I hope that the overwhelmingly positive response proves to UC that this really is the will of the majority. We’re ready to start negotiating our first contract as soon as they are.”
The student dining workers began organizing to form a union more than a year and a half ago, back in April 2022, with the goal of organizing to bargain for higher wages (despite Santa Barbara’s high cost of living, dining hall workers make on average 25 cents higher than the state minimum wage), and better working conditions.
Workers filed for union recognition with the Public Employment Relations Board office, and the dining hall workers plan to join the UAW Local 2865 chapter, which currently represents more than 36,000 student workers in the UC system, including teaching assistants and graduate student researchers, instructors, and tutors at UCSB.
UCSB officials declined requests to comment on the student workers forming a union.