Student Workers Push for Union Legitimacy

Student workers at City College are struggling to afford living expenses in the city. Prices are rising, and so is the student worker movement. A student workers union is forming to demand higher wages, more hours and better working conditions. 

The campaign was organized by Students for Justice, a student club advocating for Free City and other student rights issues.

The first community college student workers union, at Gavilan College, has inspired City College’s core committee to form a union and stand in solidarity with other unions who are expressing the need for change and fairness on an administrative level, said Madison Raasch, one of the student workers union’s founders.

The union aspires to achieve a similar goal so that student employees can afford personal expenses. UAW 4811, the student workers union for the University of California, was able to advocate for UC student workers to receive $28 to $32 per hour.

City College student workers, under the federal work program, are paid $19.18 an hour and may work a maximum of 15 hours per week, according to the college’s Office of On-Campus Student Employment. At that rate and hour cap, a student worker can earn about $1,151 over four weeks before taxes.

Prices in the San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward area rose 1.5% from June 2024 to June 2025, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Food prices rose 2.8% and grocery prices rose 3.5%.

Organizers said the 15-hour cap keeps student workers from earning enough to live in San Francisco, even when they take on more responsibility. 

Brianna Smith, who splits her 15 hours a week between the Peer and Women's Resource centers, is taking on more responsibility in her position. “It’s still simply not enough to survive this city,” she said of the current wages.

Smith recited “I Must Become A Menace To My Enemies” by African American poet and activist June Jordan, eliciting cheers from the crowd during May Day for Sanctuary CCSF, an event held by Students for Justice.

She said she “loves the turnout [of the event] and knows there would’ve been more [supporters] out here if it wasn’t so cold.”

Smith relies on two student worker jobs and a full-time off-campus job to support her 9-year-old daughter as a single parent. 

Organizers also circulated a poll asking student workers to identify their most serious workplace concerns at City College. The most common concerns were low wages and limited hours, which were selected by 70% of respondents. Forty percent also cited a lack of advancement opportunities.

The poll also found that half of the respondents had worked at the college for at least six months. Seventeen percent of students have been at the college for more than three years, and 7% have been at the college between two and three years. 

“It gives us the absolute lowest weekly earning potential of all the community colleges in California,” Madison Raasch said. 

Jing Shi, a core committee member of the forming student workers union, stood with Student Trustee Heather Brandt and Evangela Brewster, co-president of the Black Student Union. All three wore black-and-red sweats and sweaters reading “Change,” designed by Lorenzo Castañeda, an organizer running for student trustee in the fall. 

Marisela Mares, lead organizer at San Francisco Rising, was at the event stapling posters commissioned for protest purposes and free for anyone to take. She said hyperlocal organizing, such as voting and neighborhood coalitions, can be effective as long as there’s ongoing education. 

Mares said one of the student leaders, Ayanna Williams, a political science major, choir member and student worker, will be teaching a civic organization class at the college starting in the fall. Williams said civic engagement is not widely taught, even though understanding government and political systems helps explain why conditions exist.

“There’s a reason for everything," Williams said, and the new generation needs to have resources to learn.

Trustee Vick Chung joined the event in support of the college’s student workers. Chung said that rather than adding a handwritten letter to the stack addressed to the mayor, they would call him directly in support of the campaign.

It would be more impactful, they said.

Chung was a student trustee in 2020 and was previously a student worker, which is why they said they understand both sides of the conversation. They said they are working with current student trustee Angelica Campos and Chancellor Messina in legitimizing the union.

“It may feel like there’s nothing being done, but we’re working on it in the back end,” Chung said, adding that until something is on the agenda, the trustees cannot openly talk about it during the meeting, according to the Brown Act.

“It’s hard out here,” Smith said about living in San Francisco. She looked around at the crowd of more than 30 students and supporters. “But we’re deep out here.”