Colleagues,
Yesterday, many of us received another union-busting e-mail from the Provost, David Madigan, attempting to spread disinformation about our request for an election agreement.
Prior to filing for our union election, we reached out to the administration to request they agree to an election process under the NLRB. Instead, they countered by offering a completely different process that would undemocratically strip us of our right to collective action and prevent us from bargaining on some key issues. It’s frustrating that David Madigan then turns around to claim “The union approached the university last Friday and asked that we opt out of this process” when in fact the opposite happened: the university demanded we accept an agreement that would harm graduate workers. We could not in good conscience go that route.
We are still open to negotiating an election agreement under the NLRB (filing for an election does not prevent such negotiations, as we have explained to the administration repeatedly), but we have not yet received any good-faith response from the administration, so we are prepared to go through the NLRB process to ensure a fair election. We want an election that maximizes the participation of all graduate workers and allows everyone a voice in the process.
At other universities across the country, they have chosen to respect graduate workers’ choice to form a union. Instead, Provost Madigan has once again decided to resort to scare tactics and misinformation in his latest email. But we will not be intimidated. Graduate workers are forming unions across the United States to raise standards, and we will do the same here. We are proud to find solidarity with our fellow workers across the university, at other universities, and in many other professions represented by the UAW, especially when we find none from our own administration. By showing up and voting YES for our union when we get our election, we will show that we are united and we will win.
David Madigan is wrong that anti-union talking points from 2017 can stop our collective effort to improve the university we love so much. For a more up to date FAQ on what unions can get YOU please see: https://nugradunion.com/faq/. If you haven’t yet joined GENU-UAW by signing an authorization card, we urge you to do so now and commit to voting YES for our union.
In solidarity,
GENU-UAW Organizing Committee
P.S. If you are not receiving the Provost’s emails, it’s possible you are missing from the worker list they will be providing the NLRB for our election. If you are performing teaching or research and receiving compensation, please reach out as soon as possible to let us know!