The National Labor Review Board (NLRB) has postponed the counting of the votes for the Union of Grinnell Student Dining Workers (UGSDW) election to expand to represent and bargain for all hourly student workers at Grinnell. The vote counting, which was originally planned to be streamed live on Thursday, April 21 at 10 a.m., has been postponed until Tuesday, April 26 at 11 a.m. due to a toxic sewage gas leak.

NLRB Region 18, the regional office that serves Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Wisconsin and parts of Iowa, has been closed due to the leak since Monday, according to a representative that the S&B spoke with over the phone. Located in Minneapolis, the office has been responsible for both sending out and receiving the mail-in-ballots for the historic UGSDW election.

The election period for the UGSDW election began on April 1, when the ballots were mailed from the Region 18 office and all eligible ballots must be received at that same office via mail by 4:30 PM on April 20. As of now, it is unknown if the multiple-day closure has affected the delivery of ballots to the office.

This is a developing story. Information will be updated to this page as it becomes available.