The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/tag/union/page/3/)
Armed with signs, chants and plenty of free coffee, employees of Gimme! Coffee gathered last Friday outside the Cayuga Street store of the famous coffee shop chain to protest what they contend to be the wrongful demotion of an employee.
Asking “Does Cornell Care?”, a local union group of construction workers has created an online petition which calls upon the university to require that local skilled trade’s workers, companies and vendors complete the construction on any future student housing project.
Cornell Graduate Students United will request to file objections regarding the University’s conduct in its March 2017 union recognition election on Friday.
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.
Cornell Graduate Students United kicked back into gear on Monday with a new strategy to accomplish some of last year’s unfinished goals.
To the editor:
As faculty members in the Cornell University ILR School, we are deeply concerned about the conduct of the Cornell administration on March 26, the eve of the Cornell Graduate Students United election and on March 27, the first day of voting in the election. On both days, Cornell’s Senior Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School Barbara Knuth sent emails to thousands of Cornell graduate students with messages that interfered with graduate employees’ ability to freely exercise their rights to choose whether to be represented by the CGSU. 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. Under the National Labor Relations Act, it is unlawful for an employer to make statements that would have the tendency to “interfere with, restrain or coerce” employees in exercising their rights to choose whether to unionize. Unlawful coercive statements by employer representatives include explicit or implicit threats that the employer may cut back on jobs if employees vote for a union.
Cornell Graduate Students United and its affiliates in addition to Cornell administration have referred grievances to an arbitrator after a controversial email was sent out last night by Senior Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School Barbara Knuth and alleged complaints by student voters of coercion and “electioneering by CGSU/AFT/NYSUT.”
“We would never have been able to get this far without all of our allies: the student body, our colleagues at I.C., our community at the Worker’s Center and across the hill over at Cornell,” said Prof. Brody Burroughs, art, Ithaca College.
Loftin criticized the labor movement for its lack of diversity, especially at the leadership level, saying the movement is “headed by old white men.”
Votes matter. A small number of eligible voter graduate students could determine the margin between “yes” and “no” votes and thus determine whether all graduate students in the defined bargaining unit will be represented by a union.