FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS about unionization

What is Collective Bargaining?

How will Collective Bargaining be beneficial?

How would the process of Collective Bargaining work at Columbia?

Who will be able to participate in the union?

What about membership dues?

What are the rights of international students to participate in the union?

What are some specific examples of union benefits at other universities?

Wasn't there already an election to certify the union?

FREQUENTLY TOLD MYTHS about unionization

If we unionize, our stipends could go down!

A union could ruin our relationships with our advisors!

Union contracts are rigid; we might lose flexibility with a union!

The union is a bunch of outsiders. They don't know anything about graduate school!

The UAW isn't a good union for teaching and research assistants!

We don't need a union. The administration will make things better!

If autoworkers go on strike, then we'll have to go on strike!

more FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS for scientists, courtesy Dave Spiegel of the astronomy department: click here.

Collective bargaining is a process that equalizes the power relationship between employees and their employer. Under collective bargaining, we will elect representatives to negotiate a binding contract with Columbia that sets out the terms of our employment. With collective bargaining, graduate employee unions can negotiate for improvements in wages, hours, benefits, and terms and conditions of employment.

There are recognized graduate employee unions at 29 campuses nationwide, including all eight campuses of the University of California, the University of Oregon, Oregon State University, three campuses of the University of Massachusetts, the University of Wisconsin, and the University of Michigan. In January 2002, the graduate employees union at New York University, GSOC/UAW, successfully completed negotiations for their first contract.

Without collective bargaining, Columbia has unilateral power to change the terms of our employment. With a collective bargaining agreement, the University would have to negotiate any changes to our working conditions and benefits with us. They could not make unilateral changes.

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The purpose of collective bargaining is to bargain a contract that covers wages, benefits, terms and conditions of our employment. Collective bargaining gives us a democratic voice in improving our lives.  Through it, graduate employee unions have successfully improved stipends, healthcare and other benefits and addressed other issues such as workload and job safety. For example, unionized graduate employees at the University of California (represented by UAW, Local 2865) have negotiated a contract that provides:

-- Secure job appointments
-- Full fee remissions
-- Health benefits including dental and vision
-- Workload protections
-- Strong protections against sexual harassment and discrimination
-- Paid training
-- Full enforceability by neutral third parties
-- Substantial wage increases

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Once the union is recognized to collectively bargain with the University, all members of the bargaining unit will be surveyed in order to find out what they want to see included in a contract. Members of the bargaining unit will also elect representatives, fellow Teaching and Research Assistants, to a bargaining committee. The bargaining committee will then sit down with the administration and negotiate a tentative contract. Once a tentative agreement has been reached, GSEU members must vote to accept or reject the contract.

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Although people will only be formally covered by the contract during the semesters that they hold positions in the bargaining unit, there are various ways in which other graduate students could participate in the union. In the graduate employees union at UMass, Amherst, for example, membership is open to everyone in the bargaining unit plus everyone who has held a position in the bargaining unit within the previous 12 months. In the graduate employees union at the University of California, Berkeley, membership is open to everyone in the bargaining unit as well as to any current graduate student who has ever worked in the bargaining unit.

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Dues are important to any union because they provide the financial resources necessary to equalize power with the employer. Under UAW policy, no one will pay any dues until after we successfully negotiate a contract. After a contract is in place, union members will pay just 1.5% of our gross salary in dues during semesters when we have jobs covered under the contract. Benefits such as healthcare and tuition remission are exempt from dues under the UAW Constitution. The amount we will pay in dues is small compared to the improvements we can make through collective bargaining.

Dues support a variety of resources that will give us the clout to represent our members. These include educational, legal, negotiating, and other membership services. Dues also contribute to organizing new groups of workers, the strike fund, and political action. Right now, the dues of other UAW members are funding our organizing campaign.

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International students have the same legal right to join a union as American citizens. The visa requirement that international students may only accept employment associated with the University they attend in no way compromises the right to belong to a Union that represents them in the workplace. No graduate employee union has reported any complications among their members arising from the dual status of being both an international student and a unionized employee.

Participation in political activities such as picketing, rallies, leafleting, and demonstrations, is protected under the Constitution for those residing in the US on international student visas just as it is for US citizens.

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What are some specific examples of union benefits at other universities?

New York University

GSOC/UAW, representing graduate employees at NYU, negotiated its first contract with the NYU administration in January 2002. GSOC/UAW is an autonomous bargaining unit within UAW Local 2110.

Before:
-- Prior to the union campaign, stipends were $10,000 per year for most students in NYU's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Stipends in the School of the Arts and the School of Education were as low as $5,100. In response to GSOC's organizing drive, the NYU administration raised stipends in GSAS to $13,000.

-- Many graduate assistants did not have tuition waivers or fee waivers.

-- Graduate employees at NYU paid for their own health care. In response to the union campaign, NYU began to pay a portion of healthcare costs for some graduate employees.

-- No compensation was provided for teaching-related duties or other required duties performed prior to the start of a semester.

-- No guaranteed benefits.

After:
-- Minimum salaries increase by at least 38% over the 4 years of the contract. For most NYU graduate employees, the contract will provide for a raise to $15,000 retroactive to the beginning of the 2001-2002 academic year, with increases up to a minimum of $18,000 for the 2004-2005 academic year. Minimum salaries for MA students working outside of GSAS will increase to $13,000 over the life of the contract. Graduate employees at NYU already earning above the minimum receive a 3.5% raise in each of the first 3 years of the contract and a 4% raise in the final year.

-- All graduate employees guaranteed tuition and fee waivers (including standard tuition charges, maintenance of matriculation, sports center membership, activities fees, and registration).

-- NYU now covers 100% of the cost of healthcare coverage for all graduate employees. Outpatient benefits were improved and enhanced beginning in the third year of the contract.

-- Additional compensation is guaranteed for all employees who work more than an average of 20 hours a week. Class time, preparation, grading, proctoring, training, and advising all count towards total hours worked.

-- The Childcare fund for graduate students, which the NYU initially created in response to GSOC's campaign, will be increased by 30% to $110,000.

-- Under the contract, letters of appointment constitute guarantees of employment. If a course or section is cancelled, the university is obligated to provide either an alternative appointment or compensation.

-- Guaranteed reasonable access to workspace, telephones, photocopying and voicemail.

-- Pre-semester work training paid at $100/day.

-- Any pre-existing benefits not specifically written into the contract are guaranteed to continue.

NYU UPDATE: GSOC's first contract expired in August of 2005, and the NYU administration is refusing to renegotiate. Graduate assistants there have been on strike since November 9, 2005. Read more at GSOC's website.

University of California

UAW Local 2865, representing graduate employees throughout the University of California system (UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC San Diego, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, UC Santa Cruz and UC Riverside), was recognized in 1999.

Before:
Graduate employees did not have tuition remission before unionizing efforts began. In an attempt to placate employees, the university offered 60% remission. However, as salaries failed to keep up with cost of living increases, the remission did very little to alleviate financial burdens. Graduate employees also lacked health care coverage. In addition, as class sizes increased, graduate employees were saddled with more work without the benefit of an increase in salary. For example, many students worked 30 hours a week but were paid for 20. The UC graduate student government grew frustrated by the failure of the university to deal adequately with graduate employee concerns. As a result, some members of the graduate student government got together and began to organize a union.

After:
Graduate employees won a 25% overall increase in compensation. A minimum salary of $14, 458 for TAs was established in April 2000. The lowest paid tutors received a wage increase of up to 50% and an hourly minimum rate was established at $9.25. Graduate employees now have tuition and fee remissions. Graduate employees gained access to staff parking and other transit programs such as pre-tax and payroll deduction programs and bus passes. They have been granted access to required facilities and services such as office and desk space, telephones, computers, mailboxes and storage space. Smaller, more reasonable class sizes were established and, as a result, more jobs became available for graduate employees.

University of Iowa

COGS/UE (Campaign to Organize Graduate Students/United Electrical Workers) was recognized in 1996.

Before:
Salaries for RAs and TAs ranked in the bottom half of the Big Ten (average of $10,500, sometimes less, with no health care benefits. Health insurance was limited and few could afford adequate care for themselves or their families. Paid leaves, including sick leave and bereavement leave, were rare or nonexistent. Hours of work and appointment levels were at the whim of the university.

After:
RA and TA salaries rank in the top half of the Big Ten. The minimum salary level last year was raised to $14,130 for an academic year and $17,270 for a fiscal year appointment. Their contract also provides for a 3% salary increase each year. They have affordable, comprehensive health care for all graduate employees and their families. This includes mental health coverage, dental, and prescription drugs. Paid leave for sickness or bereavement is guaranteed via the legally-binding contract. There is also a provision for maximum work hours.

University of Massachusetts

GEO/UAW (UMASS Graduate Employee Organization) was recognized in 1990 at the Amherst campus, in 1993 at the Lowell campus, and in 2000 at the Boston campus.

Before:
UMass graduate student employees suffered from uneven and low wages. Their health care was inadequate and expensive and they lacked child care.

After:
GEO/UAW negotiated contracts that included increased salaries, minimum pay allowances, full exemption of all individual health coverage costs, including dental care and exemption of 85% of family health coverage costs (including same-sex domestic partners!) They also negotiated for subsidized child care for both undergraduate and graduate students.

University of Michigan

GEO/AFT, the graduate union at the University of Michigan is one of the oldest in the country and has represented grad employees there since the 1970s.

Before:
The university implemented a 24% tuition increase in 1973 but removed in-state tuition status to employees, established new residency requirements, and offered no pay increase. The president of the university rebuffed student complaints. Students threatened to strike and the university "suddenly" discovered a surplus of $3.75 million which could be used to grant graduate employee pay increases. But without union representation, the graduate employees had little with which to protect themselves. They did not have health benefits, guaranteed cost-of-living wage increases, or tuition waivers.

After:
GEO negotiated full health and dental coverage for teaching assistants and their families. They have the option of choosing between 6 different health care plans. Their contract guarantees TAs the same health care options offered to University of Michigan faculty and staff. They have contracted pay increases, training stipends, tuition waivers, and fee waivers.

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Yes, there was an election in March of 2002.  Nearly 1500 teaching and research assistants voted in the election.  The votes were never counted, however, as the University appealed our right to unionize to the federal National Labor Relations Board. On July 13th, 2004, the Bush-appointed Republican majority on the Board overturned the NYU decision, which declared that teaching and research assistants are employees under the National Labor Relations Act. This decision means that the ballots from our election, as well as the ballots from elections at Brown University, University of Pennsylvania, and Tufts University, will be destroyed without ever being counted. Regardless of the Board's decision, however, it is absolutely within the administration's power to recognize our union at any time and begin negotiations for a fair contract.  We intend to continue our efforts to form a TA and RA union here at Columbia.

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Your stipends won't go down.  That defeats our purpose for forming a union.  For proof check out the contracts of all the Graduate Employee Unions in the country on our Links site.  You'll see no Graduate Employee that ever unionized had their stipends reduced.  That's because with a union we bargain our own stipends, and no one wants to bargain for lower stipends.  At NYU for example every Graduate Employee received a $2000 raise in the first year of their contract, and a guaranteed raise every year of the contract.  Take a look at their contract.

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A union can't harm faculty relationships because a union has nothing to do with our relationship to our professors.  Instead, a union changes our relationship to the administration.  With a union we would negotiate with the administration over such things as stipends, health insurance, grievance procedures, and other University policies that affect us.  None of those things are decided by our faculty, they're decided by administrators.  For additional proof, read this article that found more than 9 out of 10 faculty feel a union doesn't affect their relationship with their students.

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Not true.  Since we negotiate our contract, it can be as flexible as we want it.  We could use a contract to protect the flexibility we currently have, while still making improvements in other areas.  For example the NYU contract sets a minimum stipend for Graduate Employees, but the University is free to exceed that, and in several departments it does (see page A-1 of the NYU contract.)

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Actually, the Union is the Teaching and Research Assistants.  It's you and your lab mates, classmates, and office mates; hardly a bunch of "outsiders."    A union is made up of, and run by, the members themselves.  As TAs and RAs, we run our union and decided what to bargain over.

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The UAW is the union for teaching and research assistants.  They represent more graduate employees that any other union in the nation.  They have a long history of being a strong union in higher education, and in 2002, adjunct faculty at NYU voted to unionize with the UAW.  The UAW has been politically active on behalf of graduate employees by fighting for fewer restrictions on student visas, for affirmative action, lobbying for worker ownership of international worker visas, increased funding of environmental research, and more opportunities for graduate student funding.

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Administrators have made promises before, sometimes they keep them, sometimes they don't, and sometimes the Administrators change.  Rather than have the administration unilaterally decide on "improvements" for us, we want to help negotiate over them, and then put them in writing.  We want to help improve the working conditions for TAs and RAs.  By forming a union we would have a democratic voice in shaping the policies and procedures that affect us, and the guarantees of a contract.

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Only we decide if, and when, we want to strike. Labor solidarity on the local, state, and national levels will give our union strength. It is vitally important for us to support other unions, and support takes many forms. However, union members are never forced to strike when other unions strike. According to the UAW Constitution, strike authorization would require a 2/3 majority of a GSEU membership vote. Even if a supermajority of union members were to approve a strike, no individual can be forced to strike against their will.

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