Hello fellow grad workers,
Last Wednesday, Northeastern sent in legal documents to the National Labor Relations Board stating their position on our petition for a union election. In it they assert that we aren’t workers, saying (pg. 25):
The Northeastern Administration refuses to recognize our contribution to the success of the university. Just students? Even though our work brings in hundreds of millions of dollars in grants and tuition money ($191,035,000 in 2020, $209,744,000 in 2021, and $197,076,000 in 2022), they still chose to disrespect us. Additionally, they continue to ignore the fact that we know the work that we do, who our community is, and what is best for us. Northeastern is trying to exclude hourly workers and workers at the Nahant and Burlington campuses. Why? Because they know we are stronger together and they fear our collective power. This makes it clear: We need our union recognized NOW! If admins can’t even call us workers, we cannot expect them to give us what we need and deserve without unionization.
🚨On Friday, April 14th at 12 PM in Centennial Common, we are holding a rally to demand an election. We will call on President Aoun, Provost Madigan, and the rest of the NU Admins to acknowledge our labor and stop obstructing our right to a vote and a union. It is important that we all show up to ensure that our call is heard! 🚨
Please fill out the RSVP to let us know you will be there, so we know to send you important updates as we get closer.
Another Call to Action: Giving Day on April 11th. In addition to our rally, we wanted to highlight an important day coming up the same week: Giving Day. On this day, Northeastern encourages everyone to donate money to the university (as of FY22 they already have $856,977,000 in liquidity). Some of that money is going directly into the pockets of overpriced, morally corrupt anti-union lawyers who are actively working to strip us of our union rights. We are calling on allies to donate to other organizations that seek to better our community instead. Please encourage allies and friends to donate to one of these other organizations, and then let us know @nugradunion with #LikeAHusky and #NUGivingDay on social media. If you can help out with giving day actions, please let us know here. An undergraduate organization, Huskies Organizing with Labor (HOWL), is looking for volunteers to help out throughout the day. An organizer will reach out with details as we get closer.
In Solidarity,
GENU-UAW Organizing Committee