To the editor: The following letter was sent to Cornell President Martha Pollack on September 6, 2017: Dear President Pollack: Labor Day provides an important moment to reflect on the rights of employees, including on the Cornell campus. As you know, in March 2017, Cornell graduate employees voted on whether to be represented by the Cornell Graduate Students United in collective bargaining with Cornell. The election results were close, with 856 votes for union representation, 919 votes against union representation and 81 ballots not yet counted due to questions about voter eligibility. At this point, therefore, the final outcome of that election remains uncertain. According to the Cornell Graduate School, it is expected that a final tally would maintain the majority “no” vote. Unfortunately, two incidents occurred that interfered with Cornell graduate employees’ right to vote in a fair election. On the eve of the election, Cornell’s Senior Vice Provost and Graduate School Dean Barbara Knuth sent an email to all graduate students that linked union negotiated benefits to the possibility of “reduced numbers of graduate students at Cornell.” This email by Dean Knuth constituted a threat that a vote for the union could lead to future cutbacks in the graduate program. On the first day of the election, Dean Knuth sent a second email informing graduate students of new insurance benefits. Announcing new benefits close to the time of an election to influence employees to vote against union representation interferes with voters’ free choice. Following the election, 32 ILR faculty signed a letter, published in the Cornell Daily Sun, expressing deep concern about Dean Knuth’s coercive actions. This ILR faculty letter stated, “In raising our concerns about Dean Knuth’s conduct, we draw on our expertise and experience in the field of labor law, labor relations and labor rights.” As the letter explained, “Each message [by Dean Knuth], by itself, was coercive. But together, they delivered a ‘one-two punch’ to remind the graduate students that Cornell holds the ultimate power to give and to take away.” In writing to you today, we again draw on our expertise and experience as ILR faculty to urge Cornell to take action to remedy this situation. Dean Knuth’s coercive conduct interfered with graduate employees’ ability to freely exercise their rights to choose whether to be represented by the CGSU. We urge you to take action to right this wrong. As explained on the Cornell Graduate School website, the Cornell administration and the CGSU have been negotiating for an agreement to hold a second election if CGSU chooses to file another election petition. We commend Cornell for engaging in these negotiations and urge you to reach a mutually agreeable plan with the CGSU for a second election, collective bargaining if the union is elected, and implementation of any collective bargaining agreement reached. Further, we urge Cornell to agree to honor this plan regardless of any change that may occur in the National Labor Relations Board’s Columbia University precedent that graduate assistants are employees under the National Labor Relations Act. By choosing this path, Cornell would follow the highest ethical standards in labor relations by respecting graduate employees’ freedom of association and choices concerning unionization. This was the path taken by New York University in 2013, when it voluntarily recognized and entered a collective bargaining agreement with a union of graduate assistants prior to the NLRB’s decision in Columbia University. We believe that Cornell should do no less.
Prof. Risa Lieberwitz, ILR
Prof. Maria Lorena Cook, ILR
Prof. Ileen A. DeVault, ILR
Prof. James Gross, ILR
Prof. David B. Lipsky, ILR
Prof. Lowell Turner, ILR
Jeff Grabelsky, associate director of the Worker Institute
Lara Skinner, associate director of the Worker Institute
Prof. Sarosh Kuruvilla, ILR
KC Wagner, senior extension associate at the ILR School
Prof. William Sonnenstuhl, ILR
Prof. Shannon Gleeson, ILR
Prof. Kate Griffith, ILR
Prof. Lance Compa, ILR
Prof. Rachel Aleks, ILR
Prof. Michael Evan Gold, ILR
Prof. Kate Bronfenbrenner, ILR
Prof. Virginia Doellgast, ILR
Sally Klingel, senior extension associate at the ILR School
Prof. Eli Friedman, ILR
Sally Alvarez, senior extension associate at the Worker Institute
Maria Figueroa, Worker Institute, ILR School
Prof. Ben A. Rissing, ILR
Prof. Lee H. Adler, ILR
Valerie C. Benjamin, assistant dean of human resources, ILR School
Prof. Emily Zitek, ILR
Debra Lamb, assistant director for access and administrative services, Hospitality, Labor and Management Library
Aliqae Geraci, associate director of Catherwood Library
Prof. Allison Weiner Heinemann, ILR
Jim DelRosso, associate librarian at Catherwood Library
Linda H. Donahue, senior extension associate at the Worker Institute
Prof. Sam Nelson, ILR
Nellie Brown CIH, director of the Workplace Health and Safety Program, ILR
Patrizia Sione, research archivist at the Kheel Center, ILR
Prof. Ronald Applegate, ILR
Esta Bigler, director of the Labor and Employment Law Program, ILR
