OUR UNION ELECTION HAS BEEN ORDERED!
WE VOTE YES FOR OUR UNION ON SEPT 19-21!
On Sept 19-21st, the NLRB (National Labor Relations Board) will be holding a union election for ALL graduate workers providing teaching and research services at Northeastern University.
This past spring semester, the Northeastern Administration argued that we do not have a right to a union, that we should be split up into smaller groups, and then attempted to intimidate organizers. But the federal agency in charge of unions (the NLRB) ruled in our favor and has ordered an election for us to vote to certify our union!
Once our union is certified, we will be able to bargain over our critical concerns: how much we are paid, our benefits, the work we have to do, hours of work, vacations/leaves, and our protections from abuse, harassment and discrimination. For too long, we have had to beg for improvements, only to be handed insignificant changes. Our first major raises came only after we filed for our union election, and only for some of us.
With a union, we can bargain for improvements, and we vote to accept a contract if it is good enough for us. Unionized graduate workers at other universities like Harvard, Columbia, NYU, and many more have been able to negotiate improvements to standards of living that led to our raises (because Northeastern needed to remain competitive in attracting graduate talent).
After we win our election, we can bargain to raise that bar even higher, while providing much-needed support for members who have not seen recent improvements.
As we further progress, we will be keeping people updated. There are going to be many questions, and organizers in every department will work to address all of them.
We hope to see you next Wednesday (7/19) at our Rally, at 12 PM at Centennial Common. Come celebrate our victory, show support for organizers, and let’s win this!
In Solidarity,
GENU-UAW Organizing Committee
Link to the Decision from the NLRB Regional Director
NOTE: You can expect the Northeastern administration to try and persuade you against voting yes in the coming months, and the reason for that is simple: the NU Administration does not respect us, and does not want to have to sit across the table and bargain with us.