How can I support graduate workers during the pandemic?
The pandemic has not stopped graduate workers’ fight, in fact in many places it has exposed the precarious nature of their jobs. Click on a University to learn more about supporting graduate workers there!
How can I learn more about graduate student organizing?
- The University Against Itself: The NYU Strike and the Future of the Academic Workplace, edited by Monika Krause, Mary Nolan, Michael Palm, and Andrew Ross. This book is a comprehensive overview of graduate worker organizing at NYU, which faced many difficulties as a private institution and was involved in an NLRB case. In addition to the legal angle this book considers media strategy, labor action, relation to full-time faculty, and relation to undergraduate students, all of which are unique struggles of organizing graduate workers.
- On New Terrain: How Capital Is Reshaping the Battleground of Class War by Kim Moody, for understanding the affects of neoliberalization on union organizing, include the automotive sector. Moody outlines the rise of lean production, movement of jobs oversees, and turn towards general unionism. Moody also provides useful insights for continuing to organize today.
- This article explains recent attacks on the 2016 NYU ruling by the Trump administration. Labor law is constantly changing, especially with presidential appointments to the NLRB. Avoiding dense legalese, this article highlights graduate workers want a union, what their grievances are, and how the NLRB can undercut this. To read the NLRB decision from 2016 click here.
- This documentary covers the split of the Canadian and American autoworkers unions. This split can help explain the decline in membership and dues that lead the UAW to turn towards organizing graduate students.
- This article discusses the decline of the “professional managerial class” and the increasing proletarianization of educated Americans. This can provide useful context for the broader class trends that contributed to the need for graduate student unions.
- All archival materials included in this essay are from the GEO collection at the UMass University Archives. Similar collections exist at other union institutions.
Here is my bibliography for this project, if you are interested in more formal references.
How can I unionize my workplace?
The first step to unionizing is to talk to your coworkers! Are you facing increasingly unsafe working conditions during the pandemic? You are legally entitled to collective bargaining to ensure a safe workplace!
UE (the United Electric, Radio, and Machine Workers) published this useful overview to the unionization process. Labor Notes publishes incredible resources including these resources for organizing during a pandemic, the book Secrets of a Successful Organizer, and all of the resources/activities from the book for free online.
Reach out to local union organizers for advice, especially if you believe your employer is putting your life at risk at work during the pandemic. As of 4/29/2020 the NLRB is remotely holding certification elections, which means you CAN be legally recognized during the pandemic.