Dear fellow grad workers,
First we want to congratulate all the graduate workers graduating this semester on their hard work and hope you take what you have learned here on the value of unions and organizing into wherever you go next!
ICYMI: We Demand The Vote Rally Recap
In case you missed it, on April 19th, hundreds of graduate workers, faculty, and undergrads came out in support of our right to form a union! We held a rally, marched across campus and delivered demands to Northeastern President Aoun calling on them to cease the delays and let us vote! We have received no response yet from the administration.
Unfair Labor Practice Charges Filed Against Northeastern University
Today, we are filing charges against Northeastern University for illegally retaliating against two of our union organizers – both members of marginalized communities. Northeastern sent uniformed NUPD officers to their research labs to threaten them with false criminal charges. It is illegal to retaliate for union organizing and calling the police against our organizers exclusively (when others around them doing the same actions did not receive similar threats). We will keep you updated on the process of the charges and we call on Northeastern to cease all efforts to intimidate our organizers immediately.
Northeastern’s History of Surveillance
During their interrogations, Northeastern’s police informed both our organizers that they tracked the two of them together using the university’s building cameras. This is yet another instance of surveillance used against graduate workers to invasively disrupt our work and day to day lives (previously, Northeastern attempted to install sensors at our desks in ISEC to track when people were sitting at their desks). This continued use of surveillance and unauthorized ceding of private information emphasizes the lack of care for our safety and good judgment by the administration.
Only with a union are we able to protect ourselves and our organizers from these racist, transphobic, retaliatory, and invasive actions. Northeastern’s despicable behavior only emphasizes our need for a union contract, which would give us direct resolutions to address these grievances. We cannot afford to stand by and watch our organizers be harassed! An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us.
Northeastern has demonstrated a clear pattern of disrespect and harm to our community. They are delaying our legally protected right to vote for a union in ways that go beyond what peer institutions have done. They are trying to strip ALL GRADUATE WORKERS of the right to unionize. And they are willing to break federal law to keep their power, rather than respect us.
We cannot trust the administration to do the right thing: We need a union contract! Show Northeastern that only we know how to ensure that we can thrive in our workplaces, sign our Vote Yes Petition.
Solidarity,
GENU-UAW Organizing Committee