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Cornell Graduate Students United Protests for Competitive Wages, Additional University Support
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Cornell Graduate Students United mobilized during Friday’s Board of Trustees meeting to demand higher wages and increased University support.
The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/tag/graduate-student-unionization/)
Cornell Graduate Students United mobilized during Friday’s Board of Trustees meeting to demand higher wages and increased University support.
The result means CGSU will not be able to file another unionization election petition for a year — until May 25, 2019.
CGSU members reflected that while the arbitrator found that Cornell violated the National Labor Relations Act, the results of the March 2017 election will be certified as a loss for the union.
The arbitrator found that the email sent on March 26, 2017, by Senior Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School Barbara Knuth contained a statement that violated the NLRA, according to the arbitrator’s award document.
With negotiations at a “standstill,” CGSU is bringing the possibility for a re-election to its membership with a referendum vote.
This emergence of this caucus comes at a moment where CGSU is currently in negotiations with the University as the two parties decide which steps to take moving forward.
As graduate students prepare to head to the polls, U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) sent a statement to Cornell graduate workers pronouncing his support for unionization.
At an information session CGSU hosted for graduate students, Michael Durney, grad, questioned the portrayal of the administration as a “rich, uncaring” group.
To the Editor:
As we move toward our union recognition election next week we would like to tell you why we — 5 active members of CGSU — are proudly voting “yes.” The reason is simply this: CGSU creates a structure to uphold the values most central to our University’s mission for ourselves and future graduate workers. Fairness, respect and democracy. Fairness: Our Grad Union creates structures which will enable us to leverage our collective power to bargain for fair work and labor conditions protected by a legally binding contract. We’re not making unreasonable requests, we’re aiming to negotiate for basic labor protections and commonsense reforms which will enable us to do our jobs better. For instance, basic Cornell health insurance for a spouse and two children costs approximately $8000 annually — well out of reach given the majority of our salaries are less than $30,000 per year.
Discourse among students — increasingly prolific in the past weeks — has fueled debate, especially as CSGU continues to collect the signatures it needs to put the unionization to vote.