TLDR: Yesterday, Northeastern University responded to our petition we filed for our union election by challenging the right for grad workers to form unions across the country! Northeastern would rather harm tens of thousands of unionized grad workers across the U.S. than respect our contribution to the university’s academic mission. Sign a card supporting our union to show them we won’t let them hurt all grad workers.
Hello,
Northeastern’s administration is refusing to recognize our contribution to the university’s success and the millions of dollars brought in by our hard work. Instead, they are seeking to strip us of our right to organize. We are now going into hearings to relitigate our right to a union, simply because the Northeastern administration refuses to recognize that, in addition to being students, we are workers. This is a shocking move during a year when more than 30,000 graduate workers have formed unions at universities like MIT, Yale, WPI, USC and many more.
This is likely a delay tactic to block our vote through legal maneuvering, but risks also harming many other colleagues at unionizing peer institutions. Instead of respecting us and agreeing to a fair process, they would rather exploit the legal system and disregard our desire to have our union certified. They could just agree to an election immediately. Instead, they want to delay the election until the Fall semester.
The Northeastern administration’s decision to use this strategy only emphasizes the need for our union. They are out of touch with our needs and desires. If the university refuses to recognize our work as work, then how can we trust them to solve the fundamental problems we face in our day-to-day lives? With a union, we will sit down across the table from them as equals and bargain to see our concerns addressed.
We begin hearings next Thursday, and they will go until the administration completes presenting their case, and we respond. We continue to urge the admins to meet with us, agree to a timely election process to prove overwhelming support for our union, and show us they respect our desire to be recognized as both students AND workers.
If you are currently performing teaching or research, and want to support our union, we urge you to sign a card to say you want to VOTE YES. This helps us make sure you are on the final voter list once our election is ordered by the NLRB. This is vital given the university’s preliminary list already excluded many workers.
In Solidarity,
GEN-UAW Organizing Committee
PS Response to Provost’s email on Personal Information
The Provost sent out yet another anti-union disinformation email (“Union Petition Personal Information Disclosure Notice”). This is a clear attempt to mislead us and hide the fact that they’re challenging our right to a union. The information requested is simple and required by the NLRB: We are following the proper legal procedures to make sure everyone who is eligible has an opportunity to participate: We want a list of workers to verify everyone on the voter list is accurate and eligible, and make sure we have a chance to talk to everyone to help them make an informed choice. We want the details of our work to prove that we are workers (since they are challenging that, too). All of these things will help to ensure that we can have a fair election. Instead, the Provost is attempting to foster distrust by insinuating that we would misuse information. This is deplorable, shallow behavior and we will not fall for it.