More news developments related to Cornell’s ongoing negotiations with the Cornell Graduate Students United (CGSU).
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has generally supported viewing graduate students as employees with rights to form unions. As of July 2023, there were at least 156 active graduate student unions in the U.S. Also, currently, U.S. colleges have 775 faculty bargaining unions in public sector and private sector institutions of higher education. Unionization at private colleges are subject to the NLRB, and public colleges are governed by state labor relations authorities, such as the PERB in New York State. To date, there has been no public move to unionize Cornell’s faculty.
2024 Unionization of graduate students
In 2023, the NLRB certified that CGSU had won the right to negotiate with Cornell on behalf of its Ithaca-based Ph.D. students who are not funded by fellowships. Cornell and the CGSU have been negotiating a first-time collective bargaining agreement. As of December 15, the negotiations are hung up on CGSU’s request for a union shop, and the parties have not yet reached economic issues. CGSU is seeking protections of its members academic freedom and free expression separate from the Cornell-wide effort to write a new expressive activity policy.
RELATED: Boston University Shuts Down Humanities Graduate Admissions
The key Cornell administrator in setting policy for graduate students in Katheryn Boor ‘80, Dean of the Graduate School and Vice Provost for Graduate Education. Boor announced that she will step down on June 30, 2025. A search committee has been formed to find her replacement.
NLRB Under Trump
The NLRB has up to five voting members nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate. The Chair, Lauren McFerran’s term expired this month, and President Biden nominated her to serve another five year term. Her renomination came to a Senate vote on December 11, with the Democratic majority in the lame duck session expected to confirm McFerran. However, Senators Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) and Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.) voted with almost every Senate Republican to block it. If McFerran was reappointed, the NLRB would have a Democratic majority for the next two years. By refusing to confirm McFerran, Donald Trump has two vacancies to fill with Republicans, resulting in a Republican majority as soon as new appointees can be confirmed. This may result in policies that will add difficulties to union organizing.
UAW Withdraws Its Petition to Unionize Vanderbilt Graduate Students
On December 19, the United Auto Workers (UAW) local seeking to represent graduate students at Vanderbilt University withdrew its efforts to become a recognized union. Three graduate students represented by the National Right to Work Foundation sued Vanderbilt under the the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act to block the NLRB or Vanderbilt from disclosing the graduate student roster to the UAW.
“While we’re happy that the private information of Vanderbilt grad students is now secure from prying union eyes, it’s clear from both that case and many other cases that Foundation attorneys are litigating for grad students around the country that union monopoly bargaining power has no place in the academic sphere,” said National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “Union bosses were able to get a foothold at colleges and universities as the result of biased rulings from the NLRB under Obama and Biden, which has jeopardized not only academic freedom, but also religious freedom, and federal protections that students rely on for privacy and security.”
Dartmouth Basketball Team Drops NLRB Petition
On March 5, 2024, the Dartmouth Varsity Basketball team voted 13 to 2 to unionize and join Service Employees International Union Local 560, which already represents some Dartmouth workers. Although Basketball at Dartmouth is not a “big money” sport, many people believed this would establish a valuable precedent for having the NLRB treat varsity athletes as university employees. On December 31, the union dropped its efforts to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement with Dartmouth. “While our strategy is shifting, we will continue to advocate for just compensation, adequate health coverage, and safe working conditions for varsity athletes at Dartmouth,” SEIU Local 560 President Chris Peck said in a statement that called collective bargaining “the only viable pathway to address issues” facing college athletics today.
Stanford Reaches Agreement After Graduate Student Strike Threat
Stanford University in Palo Alto, CA has been fending off student organizing for years. On Oct 28, Stanford offered a contract. On Nov. 7, the Stanford Graduate Workers Union (SGWU) voted by a 98% margin to reject the contract and to authorize a strike on Nov. 12. The day before the strike was to start, the parties reached a tentative agreement.
On Nov. 22, the SGWU ratified a tentative bargaining agreement. Under the three-year agreement members receive “a pay raise of 4.75% on average and an increase of 6.78% in the minimum stipend in its first year. The stipend will increase by 4.25% next year and by 3.75% in 2026. The University also guaranteed 12 months of funding for the first five years of Ph.D. students’ degrees.” according to the Stanford Daily.
Princeton Graduate Students Vote Down Union While Postdocs Form One
The United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, which is helping organize Cornell, tried to organize Princeton University. In May 2024, graduate students voted 391-652 not to form a union. Meanwhile, 80% of Princeton postdocs voted for a union. Postdoc contract negotiations are stalled on the question of whether observers will be allowed into the negotiation sessions.
