Posts tagged graduate workers
U Rochester Ph.D. Student Workers Strike for an Election Without the NLRB
April 27, 2025 // University of Rochester Ph.D. student workers began striking this week to pressure the institution to agree to what they call a “fair union election.” And for the process to be fair, they say, it can’t be handled by the Trump-era National Labor Relations Board. “We don’t see any kind of path through the NLRB at present,” said George Elkind, a Ph.D. student on the proposed UR Graduate Labor Union’s organizing committee.
Clark University undergrad workers on strike: Here are the latest developments
March 19, 2025 // A strike fund for the Clark student workers has been set up to pay students who are losing income while striking. There is a separate fund, organized by the Teamsters, which students can also access. According to The Scarlet, students must participate for a minimum of 15 hours of picketing and other strike-related activities in order to claim money from the Teamsters fund. Undergraduate students who work at Clark University are seeking unionization, with employees citing a desire for higher salaries and guaranteed working hours. The students have partnered with Teamsters Local 170, that has been negotiating on their behalf with the university.
Ph.D. Workers and Their University Both Backed a Union Election. Then Trump Won.
March 6, 2025 // Student workers at other private universities across the nation may also be wary of going before the Trump-era NLRB. Since the November election, petitions to form graduate or undergraduate student unions have been withdrawn at Berea College, Clark University, Dartmouth College, Kenyon College, the New School and New York University, said William A. Herbert. Herbert, executive director of the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions at Hunter College, said reports of what’s happened at Rochester suggest the university “has decided to shift to a pre-litigation mode that might include an effort at overturning current NLRB precedent.”
WISCONSIN: Marquette University unionizing attempt unsuccessful
November 14, 2024 // Marquette faculty have previously attempted to unionize, and now their most recent efforts have once again fallen short.
University of California academic workers expand strike over response to pro-Palestinian protests
May 29, 2024 // The union is demanding “amnesty” for all academic employees, students, student groups, faculty and staff who face disciplinary action or arrest due to protest,” along with the protection of free speech and political expression on campus. It is also calling for divestment from UC’s “known investments in weapons manufacturers, military contractors, and companies profiting from Israel’s war on Gaz,” and disclosure of all of the UC system’s funding sources and investments. The union quickly filed an unfair labor practice charge against UCLA following the clashes earlier this month and later submitted similar violations over police action at UC San Diego and UC Irvine encampments.
BU grad workers vote to strike Monday
March 22, 2024 // The Boston University graduate workers union voted Wednesday to go on strike Monday afternoon if they do not reach a contract agreement with the university. The union, which represents roughly 3,000 graduate student workers at BU, voted last week to authorize the strike after a longstanding battle with the university over fair pay and stronger benefits, including health care coverage and child care assistance.
Local 33 and Yale reach historic tentative agreement
December 12, 2023 // In the tentative agreement, Yale agreed to recognize the union until 2031, even if changes in federal labor guidelines void the status of graduate students at private universities as union-eligible workers. Although the National Labor Relations Board, or NLRB, ruled in 2016 that private school graduate workers have the right to unionize, policy experts have long theorized that a Republican-appointed NLRB might attempt to overturn that ruling. The tentative agreement protects the right of Local 33 to exist for the next two presidential administrations.
One Small Union Is Stoking Much of the Militant New Graduate Worker Organizing
May 30, 2023 // With around 35,000 members, the UE is not a huge union. It was once the third-largest — and arguably the most left-wing and democratic — member of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, with around a half-million members in core industries, until it fell victim to postwar anti-communist purges, raids from other unions and plant shutdowns. But the union revived itself by the 1990s. Famously, UE workers at the Republic Windows & Doors factory in Chicago occupied their plant in 2008, and today the union boasts a range of affiliated locals across sectors and industries from California to Vermont.
Rutgers’ unions ratify new contracts, formally ending strike
May 11, 2023 // Three unions, which represent about 9,000 Rutgers staff members, were involved in the strike: the Rutgers AAUP-AFT, which represents full-time faculty, graduate workers, postdoctoral associates and some counselors; the Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union, which represents part-time lecturers; and the AAUP-BHSNJ, which includes faculty in the biomedical and health sciences at Rutgers’ medical, dental, nursing and public health schools.
Graduate Organized Laborers of Dartmouth win union vote
April 13, 2023 // The Graduate Organized Laborers of Dartmouth will become a recognized union, the group announced on Twitter this afternoon. According to the announcement, 261 graduate student workers voted to unionize, winning the election by an 89% margin. The union comes a year after the Student Worker Collective at Dartmouth unanimously voted to unionize.