The NLRB will then hold a secret-ballot election to determine whether the union would represent the entire group covered by the election. Unions cannot tolerate such rejection by workers. The Cornell Daily Sun (Published 25 October 2016), Welcome to At What Cost It is possible that graduate students seeking different degrees, studying in different colleges and different programs within colleges, and doing different research or teaching may be grouped together and bound by the same terms and conditions as negotiated by the union for all. First, as professors, though we are not trained as HR professionals, we are often put in that position because graduate students will approach us if they have a conflict with their advisor. At unionized firms, trained individuals within the union can present workers grievances to management in a formal (and often constructive) process, usually via arbitration. And we really need that, because right now, it takes a lengthy suicide note with a list of suggestions to enact change (see Chemistry Dept). The documents posted there have details about what has already happened at other schools where the students decided to form a union. The Autoworkers main office is in Detroit, Michigan and it currently reports assets of approximately $1.8 billion, with over 700 employees. In addition, the university could stop providing students with assistantship monies while they were on strike. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. Moreover, employers (including managers) are generally prohibited from working directly with represented employees to establish or change terms and conditions of employment. Arguments against the Unionization of Graduate Students at Harvard (4 November 2016) University to Give Thousands of Students' Information to Labor Board Columbia Spectator (Published 26 October 2016) There are no guarantees in collective bargaining. Union . Some examples of how the graduate student experience may change: Broadly, the union will be deciding what it thinks is best for graduate students. What we should be concerned about is whether the NLRB would require Northeastern to bargain with a union representing graduate students over the terms of co-op placements. It is equally illogical to cluster students whose work and degrees are fundamentally different. Thus, the university could not make separate arrangements with individual students based upon distinct or individual needs or interests with respect to their teaching and research, but, instead, would have to negotiate these items directly with the union. As graduate students consider their path forward, we wish to summarize the principles that will inform the universitys approach. I am particularly concerned about losing freedom to work in the lab in the event of a strike. Personally, Id rather have my money and make personal decisions about which benefits I want. This is absurd, other schools have unionized and we can look at them for an expectation of what might happen. Debate over unionized graduate students comes to Pitt Graduate Students, the Laborers of Academia | The New Yorker A large literature in labor economics demonstrates that union workers enjoy higher wages, more generous benefits, and better working conditions than non-unionized workers. Stanfords relationship with our graduate students is, first and foremost, an educational one. The latest campus battle: Graduate students are fighting to unionize Indiana University News (Published 9 April, 2022), The False Hope Of Graduate Student Unions (forbes.com) Graduate students at Princeton are seeking to join this group, and more than half of the graduate student body signed a union card in support of Princeton Graduate Students United (PGSU). This means that the union has the exclusive legal right to negotiate collective terms and conditions of employment, such as pay and benefits, for the entire group. Many of them are. Is this even something we ought to be telling ourselves even? Luckily, both of us do research in the area of unions and labor policy one of us from the vantage point of economics, the other from political science and law. Grad Student Unionization: Unmanageable Quagmire or Elegant Distinction? My very strong impression, which will no doubt be vigorously contested, is that most arguments against TA/RA unionization stem less from a coherent set of arguments, than a semi-inchoate sense that giving organizing rights to Jedi Apprentices will lead to a Great Disturbance in the Force. Most of these arguments are Ive got mine, so fuck you hiding behind a few simple scare tactics. Canvassing is not fun for them! What are union dues and how are they calculated? Hypothetically, if you have kids, or a spouse, and the union would make the life of people with kids easier than do what you feel is best. 185.185.26.114 At this point, we do not know. It simply requires that the parties meet at reasonable times and confer in good faith.. Let the vote be reflective of the population at Harvard on an individual level. Before signing anything, or making any decision, the university encourages SGAs to understand the potential ramifications of what a union could mean for their graduate experience. Claudio Gonzles, who is pursuing a doctorate in mathematics at the University of Chicago, was among them. It is not yet known whether union membership may impact hours of work or training opportunities related to visa classification. What Is Unionization? The following are just a few examples of the potential impacts you might experience if the Autoworkers were elected as your union: Because the union believes you are an employee, not a student, collective bargaining could mean that the university would have to deal directly with the union regarding terms and conditions of your teaching or research responsibilities. Yale has dramatically improved their funding package and child care recently, and the last decade has shown that the Ivy Leagues tend to compete with each other in expanding benefits to grad students: when Dean Ming standardized and expanded stipends in 1999, he did so in response to other Ivy League schools doing the same thing. In two pending cases, the United Auto Workers union has asked the NLRB to reconsider the current classifications. They assert that it cannot be true that informed workers would reject union. Work hard and complain later. For serious issues such as sexual harassment and preventing students from graduating, I say each school should work together with our fantastic student representatives (excluding those individuals who have organized this union while being paid) and agreeable administration to develop systems to address these critical concerns. No. Consider the following: A union must first collect enough signed Authorization Cards to request an election. Will the union solve all of these things instantly? Graduate Student Unionization: A Critical Approach. In a collective process, members of the bargaining unit can get less than they had before negotiations began, they can get the same as they had when the negotiations began, or they can enhance what they had when the negotiations began. Gonzles knows he is a student, but he also thinks he is a worker, and says the two arent mutually exclusive. 2/3 of those participating in a strike authorization vote must vote in favor of a strike in order to authorize the union to call one., 3. Dear University of Chicago Graduate Students, With the possibility of a vote on graduate student unionization at the University of Chicago becoming more and more likely, we believe it is our role to offer resources to students in advance of making this important decision. Graduate Student Unions: Organizing in a Changed Academic Economy By refraining from voting, a student would be essentially casting a ballot for union representation because the lower the actual voter turnout, the fewer number of votes a union needs to win the election. Harvard should not hire people if they cant be paid a reasonable amount and on time, and given good benefits. What better way to help graduate students aspire to and learn the meaning of this commitment than to establish a democratic organization with representatives of their own choosing? In the event you are presented with an authorization card to sign, we urge you to become educated about union representation and collective bargaining before considering signing. We will not stop organizing until we win.. For instance: A union is an organization that serves as an external or third-party agent representing a specific group of employees. For some industries, a union is the best way for workers to get benefits and pay that they may not otherwise receive individually. Do you really spend hundreds of dollars annually to cover dental work? Stanford commits to providing factual information to our community through this website. There may be limitations on how assistants are selected and/or compensated. The following is a guest contribution and reflects the authors views alone. This provides us a voice for the first time in a university that normally makes policies without our input. All union members must pay dues to the union, which are typically a percentage of the members compensation. We looked at the numbers. Gonzles and his peers have been actively organizing for more than two years, and at this point, theyre sick of the university ignoring their demands. And they arent alone. The first contract New York University negotiated with its graduate union took 18 months to bargain. Experts predict a surge in. The Jedi Master Fallacy and Others Crooked Timber Photograph by Harvard Magazine/LC Harvard's graduate-student union election ended inconclusively last December. New Haven Register(Published 10 September 2016), HANSEN: Why I oppose unionization of graduate students Excellent arguments! While the card is legally binding for the purposes of a union getting approval for an election, signing a card does not require an eligible voter to vote for a union. Cloudflare Ray ID: 7ec075497f792c3b These positions differ in numerous ways from those of graduate students.. PDF Graduate Student Unionization: Frequently Asked Questions In addition, striking is actually extremely rare and requires a 2/3 vote to go forward. Labor unions are important organizations for economic empowerment and for workplace representation. Historically, some unions have excluded women and racial and ethnic minorities; others have struggled with corruption, stagnation, and ill-served entrenchment. If the union called a strike requiring students in the bargaining unit to stop their teaching and research duties, the university could temporarily or permanently replace those striking graduate student assistants. according to a report conducted by the university, report being on some kind of public assistance. IE 11 is not supported. Whether or not the university agrees with Cohen is beside the point, William LeoGrande, associate vice provost for academic affairs at American University, said. Establish a local union at 10 new universities per year and you've got yourself quite the racket. Required fields are marked *. In 2018, graduate students at Brandeis University, in Waltham, Massachusetts, got a pay raise through a union contract they secured. What happens if a union wins an election? It often takes a year or more to negotiate a first collective bargaining agreement. These students must resign one of their positions. . On April 6, 2022, Chancellor Melissa Nobles and Vice Chancellor Ian Waitz announced the results of the April 4-5 graduate student unionization election; congratulated current and past MIT GSU-UE members on their four years of dedicated work that culminated in the union's victory; and committed to bargain in good-faith with . They are volunteers and are doing this for our collective benefit. A Case Against the Union - The Heights Some employers who are concerned about being interpreted to be a joint employer with the university, rather than as a separate employer, might reconsider their participation in the co-op program if graduate students are represented by a union. I can see just from the comments that there is such a diverse variety of needs among GSAS students, I dont see how unionization could help alleviate any of these problems. The Autoworkers Union has created a website and enlisted a handful of graduate students on campus to persuade SGAs to sign union Authorization Cards and pledge support for a graduate student union. The union movement has already had negative impacts on student organizations such as the GSAS Graduate Student Council whose purpose is to represent the diverse voices and viewpointsof students democratically. Your email address will not be published. But as graduate students at Harvard, Yale, MIT, and Columbia have recently unionized, it is hard to make this argument today. Although 1,456 students voted against unionization, and 1,272 voted in favor, more than 300 additional ballotslarger than the voting marginremain under challenge. Even elected leaders in my department who are non-organizers but favor the union, have not held themselves to standards of neutrality in disseminating information on both sides of the issue. The effects of graduate-student unionization Tom Schenk Jr. Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at:https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd . Would union representation of graduate students have an impact on their participation in the co-op program or other experiential opportunities? Harvard GSAS has one of the most generous and supportive family programs. Updated September 7, 2022. Funding this union would fund UAW, which apparently uses its money to support Trumps politics. Columbia Spectator (Published 1 December 2016), Engineering and Applied Science faculty are deeply concerned about student unionization yourstipend level (which could increase, decrease or remain the same, particularlywhen taking into account the cost of union dues oragency fees). For the 2023 academic year, this is $35,196, and the Guarini School has requested support to increase this 13.6% to $40,000 for 2024. We would much prefer that our students have professional guidance from their unions in these sensitive matters. While we are unable to predict what will happen in bargaining, negotiating a collective bargaining agreement for hundreds or thousands of graduate students in different disciplines, with different majors in different colleges is complex, and could take a very long time. Office of Legal Counsel, University of Chicago (Published 29 September 2016), Forum: Yale graduate students receive free education, health care, and stipends This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. Following the National Labor Relations Board ruling this past August that graduate students at private universities who work as teaching or research assistants are employees who have the right to unionize, Graduate Workers Forward (GWF), a movement of faculty and graduate student workers spearheaded by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), has started to organize at BU, seeking to . In other cases, employees may feel that they do not have enough say in how the organization is run. Eligible voters are people who are part of the NLRB-approved defined voting unit at the time of the election. We recognize and greatly value the many contributions that graduate students make to Stanfords mission of teaching and research. If a union representing graduate students negotiates an agency service fee requirement into a collective bargaining agreement, graduate student assistants covered by the collective bargaining agreement who choose not to become dues-paying members of the union would still have to pay an agency fee. No. If a majority of those who actually vote choose union representation, all eligible voters would be exclusively represented by the union in their dealings with the university concerning pay, benefits, and other terms and conditions of employment. Frequently Asked Questions About Graduate Student Unionization Graduate students must be free to make this decision on their own. The arguments for and against a graduate student union at Penn In most collective bargaining relationships, even those who do not become union members are required to pay an agency service fee, which is roughly equivalent to the union membership dues. Jaime Danies. Unions bargain on behalf of students for these economic benefits in a manner that is formal, procedurally fair, and open. The Harvard Crimson (Published 14 November 2016), Graduate Students: CGSU Coerces Members With Emotional Blackmail Would status as an international graduate student impact inclusion in a union? Can Barbie Be Rebranded as a Feminist Icon? - The New York Times Against Neutrality: Graduate Student Unionization and Democracy And I certainly dont agree that the environment for grad students at Harvard necessitates this action. Those who express concerns with graduate student unionization, like the University does, also frequently worry that it will change the nature of the professor-student relationship. Student assistants at private universities have the right to organize unions, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled last week. Yes, Academe Is a Calling. No, That's Not an Argument Against Unions. The United Autoworkers announced they have a majority of support, but are still trying to collect signatures. MLive (Published 3 April 2023), Lets Be Skeptical of Princeton Graduate Student United The 2016 Columbia decision is one of the things that led to the rise of efforts at private universities, but de Leon said there is another important factor. It is up to individual members whether to go on strike, and the UAW does not fine members who do not participate.. Graduate Student Union Challenges | Harvard Magazine No Pay for Striking Graduate Students As leaders of a learning community, we invite and encourage graduate students and others to engage in robust discussion of these issues. In order to form a union, graduate students have to either win voluntary recognition from their university or certification from the NLRB. Princeton educates its students as its informal motto goes to be in the nations service and the service of humanity. I actually raised a similar concern with Rudi Batzell, who very kindly made time to meet with me at the Longwood campus. A union is an organization that serves as an external or third party agent representing a specific group of employees in all dealings with an employer that concerns employee terms and conditions of employment. In fact, Duke graduate students created an organization known as "Students Against Duke Unionization" in an effort to provide graduate students with a perspective on some of . It is important to note that, if elected, the union will represent not only todays graduate students, but future graduate students, who will not have the same opportunity to vote on union representation. . There are legitimate arguments for and against unionization. (pictured) was among the elite universities that for years led opposition to graduate-student unions. Its a service to provide information without you even having to leave the lab or office. This group is called a bargaining unit. Most unions are large, national organizations with local chapters. Paul Frymer is a professor in the politics department. Faculty, staff, and students automatically receive Stanford Report emails. 1. What are agency fees and how are they calculated? It has fallen ever since. Gonzles also said the university is infamous for being the crucible for inequality in its host neighborhood, the Southside of Chicago, and wants to use union power to fight back. For those of us in the humanities, the concrete gains dont significant exceed regular and slated changes to the package over the next years (including our annual salary increase, and discussions about improving child care, etc. Probably not. April 22, 2019. For example, if a graduate students research assistantship is considered employment, it is unclear whether that limits co-op, experiential, or OPT opportunities for international graduate students.
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