NORTHAMPTON — Coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers at the Smith College Center for Early Childhood Education at Fort Hill found themselves facing staffing shortages, high turnover rates and anxiety over whether they would have enough sick leave, with cases still prevalent as they worked with groups of very young children.

“I don’t know if you’ve ever felt sneeze droplets land in your eyes, or many times in your mouth,” said Rachel Connally, a member of the early education staff at Fort Hill. “We get sick a lot, and the teachers at Fort Hill do not receive adequate sick time for the amount of illness, and often are expected to take unpaid sick time.”

After beginning to meet together last spring, the teachers signed union cards in August and held a union election on Sept. 25, with a unanimous 21-0 vote to create the Fort Hill Teachers Association. The union is now seeking negotiations with the college to reach its first contract.

The early childhood educators certainly aren’t alone when it comes to unionizing at Smith — over the past 10 months, four groups of Smith employees have successfully formed unions. Residential Life student workers voted to unionize in December 2023 by a vote of 32-2, and 66 student dining workers voted to follow suit in February. In April, more than 40 Smith library workers unanimously voted to form a union, citing high turnover rates and lack of adequate training. A fifth union may soon be on its way, with Smith-employed therapists and nurses filing for a National Labor Relations Board election.

With so many new unions cropping up at the same time, the need for them to come together to share strategies and help each other in their respective bargaining soon became apparent. Shortly after the Fort Hill teachers elected to form their union, a “Solidarity Fair” was organized on campus, where union leaders announced the formation of Smith Labor United, a coalition of all labor unions active at the college.

The four new unions are joined in the coalition by two unions that have existed at Smith for decades: Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 211, the dining and housekeeping staff at the college; and SEIU 263, the school’s facilities management and custodial staff.

“Everyone was unionizing, but we weren’t all one voice,” said Mitch Daniels, president of the dining and housekeeping union, which he said currently consists of 143 members. “We came up with the idea of the Solidarity Fair as an initial get-together mixer, so that we can meet each other in a more informal setting, while also giving information to the community and to each other.”

Daniels said he recently attended a Labor Notes Convention, one of the largest organized labor gatherings in the country, and received encouragement and advice from other SEIU members about helping form the coalition.

“We’re all just a bunch of small unions. We don’t have a massive union that can really show immense strength,” Daniels said. “For us, the best way to do that is to come together and coalesce.”

Spencer Backus, a senior at Smith and a house community adviser who has been active in organizing the residential life student union, known as the Smith College Residence Life Collective, said for her fellow union members, post-pandemic life at Smith had been a catalyst in organizing the union.

“I started [at Smith] in 2021, and there was a lot of support from Smith that was given to residents, like sick housing and free COVID tests,” Backus said. “I started on the residence life staff last year, and the amount of resources that just didn’t exist anymore for students was really appalling.”

The residence life union is still seeking its first contract with the campus, and Backus credited communication with other unions, such as the student dining workers, as key in making the progress it had to get to this point.

“I don’t think either group would have been as successful as quickly if we hadn’t spoken with each other,” Backus said. “Increasing the amount of connectedness of the unions on campus is really beneficial, and it also helps raise awareness.”

For the Fort Hill staff, the opportunity to join a coalition so early into their union has brought benefits to their organizing.

“We got to enter into this union solidarity work as it has just begun, and it’s just such a good tool for us,” Connally said. “It’s been a real support to our efforts, and towards the [unions] that may come next.”

Smith College officials did not respond to an email for comment.

Alexander MacDougall can be reached at amacdougall@gazettenet.com.