UR graduate students continue push for union election

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Students and supporters gathered at Interfaith Chapel last week.

University of Rochester graduate students have taken to advocacy after progress on a union election stalled. 

Students and supporters gathered at Interfaith Chapel last week to demand that UR president Sarah Manglesdorf sign the agreement to enable an election that would allow the Graduate Labor Union to enter contract negotiations and organize. Though last December saw the university enter a tentative agreement with GLU, its members now claim that the administration has gone silent on any other steps toward unionization.

“U of R grad students are the U of R,” says Claire Becker, a PhD student of history. “We’re readers, we’re graders, we’re TAs, we are instructors. I think our work gets hugely taken for granted by the university.”

Through collective organizing and conversations with other members, Becker illustrates a sentiment of unity among UR’s graduate students, fueled by financial hardship and a lack of support from the university administration.

“In my department, our base stipend is $24,000, which is not the lowest at the university. I think that’s $15,000,” Becker notes. “I have had to work between (five to seven) jobs, depending on the semester, in order to sort of keep up with bills. It does shock me how sort of uniform our experiences are, in that a lot of us are struggling to sort of keep up with bills while also doing this insanely heavy lift of completing a doctoral program.”

GLU seeks to address the stipends graduate students receive in exchange for their work, alongside increased support systems for subgroups like international and minority students. While there have been successes—like comprehensive health insurance—repeated efforts to engage with university administration haven’t borne fruit.

Last Thursday, a delegation of members attempted to enter Wallis Hall to speak with Manglesdorf. They say she was not present to engage with them.

“Imagine two years already, meetings after meetings after meetings and negotiations, she has still not come to the table,” said delegate Azmeer Sharipol at the rally. “We’re asking for protection from discrimination, from abuse, protections for our friends, all of that.”

Rally speakers spoke about concerns over the potential treatment of labor unions under the Trump administration. (On Jan. 27, President Donald Trump fired Gwynne Wilcox, acting chair of the National Labor Relations Board, who described the move as “illegal and unprecedented.”)

“What will we say when they ask us, ‘How does the university defend its students’ rights under an administration bent on stripping us of our rights?,’” Emefa Amoah said. “Right now, we only have one answer: we don’t know. And that’s not good enough.”

UR spokesperson Sara Miller said the university needs additional time to consider the ramifications of the proposed agreement in tandem with a recent court ruling in Vanderbilt University v. National Labor Relations Board. A preliminary injunction was issued in the case, which involves NLRB regulations that would require relevant student data to be produced in violation of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.

“The university supports the right of our PhD students to decide whether union representation is right for them,” Miller says. “We take this process very seriously and plan to follow up as quickly as possible with a formal response to the union.”

The students have won support from a couple members of Rochester City Council. Councilmember Stanley Martin spoke at the rally, while Mary Lupien, a councilmember and mayoral candidate, voiced her support for the GLU on social media.

GLU intends to continue its efforts until an agreement is reached, whether through striking, or informing prospective graduate students of the experiences GLU members have faced during their studies.

“(We’re) continuing to garner more support and put this public pressure on the university in the face of them not really responding to the direct communication we’ve tried to initiate with them,” Becker says.

Narm Nathan is a former Rochester Beacon intern. 

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