Posts tagged graduate students
Graduate program shifts fellowship classifications, sparking contention in historic unionization effort
September 29, 2026 // The doctoral program in behavioral and social health sciences previously designated many first-year students as fellows — a nonunionized class that does not have access to the same grievance processes that unionized graduate employees have. Under current University policy, fellows are not considered employees, since the University views their funding as not contingent on their working for Brown. As a result, they are not covered by GLO’s main contract. But the SPH officials determined that their fellows had similar work requirements to other students in the BSHS program — including research assistants — who are included in the Graduate Labor Organization’s contract, BHSS program director Kate Carey said.
Professor Claude? College unions negotiate for protection against AI teachers and evaluators.
September 25, 2026 // Research universities, like Pitt and Carnegie Mellon University, have especially embraced AI as both an area of study and a resource to be mined. The two local schools have hosted notable industry gatherings around innovation, and their respective presidents each tout the tech’s capabilities. “We’ve seen a pretty rapid effort by universities to adopt AI tools, and with, I would say, much more kind of inconsistent thinking and policy development about guardrails and protections for how those AI tools might impact academic work at universities,” said Tyler Bickford, president of Pitt’s faculty union.
Op-ed: Sean O’Brien is just Randi Weingarten in a hard hat
September 20, 2026 // Unions across sectors, including the AFL-CIO, the SEIU, and largely private-sector Communications Workers of America, want contracts to cover sex change procedures and abortions, while other unions demand workers submit to diversity, equity, and inclusion programming. Conservatives should not expect organized labor, whose members are now nearly half directly employed by governments, to be anything other than fully committed to Big Government and other entities that support Everything Leftism. There’s no clean way to divide organized labor against itself, so any conservative who wants to empower union bosses needs to know they are empowering all of them, including the ones they know better than to help.
United Academic Workers
August 8, 2026 // On campus, the same bloc has changed what a strike is about. In May 2024, UAW Local 4811 called a strike against the University of California over the university’s handling of pro-Palestinian encampments, demanding divestment from weapons manufacturers, amnesty for arrested protesters, and a right for researchers to opt out of military-tied funding. UC warned that the precedent would expose every public employer in California to work stoppages “advancing political and/or social viewpoints.” The UC contract ratified this March carried politics into the agreement itself, featuring a $400,000 legal fund for international workers and a commitment to “non-collaboration with ICE.” The bargaining committee described the deal as having “compelled management to side with workers and not with Trump.”
UAW votes to divest from Israel bonds
June 24, 2026 // United Auto Workers delegates on Thursday voted in a narrow decision to amend their constitution prohibiting investment in Israel Bonds, a mark of a sea change in the union's politics, according to experts. The passage is expected to result in the divestment of at least $400,000 in Israel Bonds, according to the passed resolution and the Unite All for Workers for Democracy caucus within the Detroit-based union focused on "class struggle" that pushed for the resolution. Israel Bonds is the common name for Development Corp. for Israel, which is the broker-dealer that underwrites and markets debt securities issued by the State of Israel in the United States. Proceeds from the sales support Israel's government.
HGSU-UAW Strike Becomes Longest in Union History as Harvard Holds Firm at Bargaining Table
May 28, 2026 // The Harvard Graduate Students Union-United Auto Workers plans to picket through Commencement after its 27th bargaining session with Harvard ended Thursday without a contract, pushing the walkout into its 31st day — the longest strike in the union’s history. In an email sent two days before Thursday’s session, HGSU-UAW told the University it would consider a membership vote to end the strike if Harvard moved on five core issues: paid immigration leave, an agency shop, a grievance process for harassment and discrimination, paid medical leave, and pay parity between teaching fellows and research assistants.
Op-ed: George F. Will: It’s graduation time for disappointed little Lenins
May 11, 2026 // Disgruntled Starbucks workers embraced the United Auto Workers union, which they soon despised as too tepid about rectifying all injustices everywhere. Scheiber says the UAW now represents “roughly 100,000 higher-education workers” — graduate students and non-tenure-track faculty. Their numbers and grievances are growing faster than those of autoworkers. Many Starbucks workers agitating for unionization were berating the company for an inadequate commitment to LGBTQ rights. Then, on Oct. 7, 2023, they fell in love with Hamas. One organizer wore a sweatshirt emblazoned with a portrait of Karl Marx. An Apple store employee, who blamed her declining mental health on “the job” and “the stress of unionizing,” became, Scheiber writes, so “desperate” she sold her two $150 tickets to a Beyoncé concert. An employee at a Baltimore-area Apple store: “I had to get rid of Hulu” (a subscription-streaming service).
Thousands of Harvard University graduate students go on strike
April 21, 2026 // Their demands include fair pay and raises that keep up with inflation, protections for non-citizen workers, and external processes with third-party arbitration for cases of harassment, discrimination, and abuse in the workplace. HGSU is made up of 4,000 workers.
Maryland lawmakers pass bill granting some college professors union rights
April 12, 2026 // The unions would be under the American Federation of Teachers, which represents K-12 educators, higher education faculty and staff, state employees, nurses and health care professionals. The Maryland chapter represents over 18,000 workers. Kenya Campbell, president of AFT Maryland, said she expects Moore to sign the bill this year but said the work isn’t over. “We’re going to continue to fight until all faculty across the state of Maryland have the right to collectively bargain,” she said. The bill has advanced despite opposition from the University System of Maryland, the parent organization overseeing most of the public universities in the state.
University of Michigan Graduate Student Researchers Vote to Join Union
April 2, 2026 // Over 2,200 graduate student research assistants join the Graduate Employees Organization Local 3550 of the American Federation of Teachers.