In November 2023, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) conducted a secret ballot election among Cornell Graduate students, and a majority of those voting supported CGSU-UE for its union. Because of winning the election, Cornell became legally obligated to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement. As a result, since March 2024, CGSU-UE and Cornell have held biweekly bargaining sessions where each side is represented by high-cost attorneys specializing in labor law.
Months have been devoted to philosophical issues such as how to define the academic freedom rights of graduate students. Oddly, both sides have avoided discussing economic issues. Perhaps this is because there are historic and wide disparities in the economic terms governing graduate students. Many Cornell graduate students are funded by the research grants of their advisors. Other graduate students are awarded fellowships (which is a fancy name for financial aid.) Cornell argues that fellows are not employees because they are not required to work for their fellowship stipends. Any teaching or research done by fellows is to meet the expectations of their Ph.D. program and not to make money.
Economic Issues
On January 8, CGSU-UE finally posted its economic expectations. This platform was ratified by CGSU-UE members in November 2024. They are seeking “A 29.31% increase for all TA, GRA, GA, and RA work.” They are beginning with a minimum stipend of $58,500 for grads on the Ithaca and Geneva campuses and $72,539 for grads at Cornell Tech. All graduate students would be guaranteed a minimum of a 6% annual pay increase. Summer funding would be guaranteed for all graduate students.
Lest the union membership become shy about making such large pay demands, the CGSU-UE website assures that “Additionally, increases in worker compensation will not place undue financial stress on principal investigators or advisors as money to fund these improvements will come out of money that is moved from central university administration into individual departments.” In fact, no such arrangements have been promised. At Boston University, admission of new graduate students was greatly restricted due to a lack of funding.
Because graduate students benefit from highly subsidized tuition, economic benefits are hard to discuss or compare across campuses. For example, Boston University PhD students pay $66,670 per year, while Cornell charges $20,800 in annual tuition. All other things being equal, a 30% increase would result in a 30% reduction in unfunded graduate student slots (primarily in the humanities).
The January 27 pause in all federal funding and disbursements highlights the nature of the economic issues. CGSU-UE is asking Cornell to guarantee a minimum level of financial support, even if the particular graduate student’s funding is based on federal or other external sources. Instead of the guaranteed levels being less than current funding, CGSU-UE is demanding at least 30% more without any new funding sources being identified or existing sources guaranteed.
Although Cornell has yet to respond to the proposed economic package, the negotiations are hitting the rocks for other reasons.
RELATED: Labor News
Union Shop
The CGSU-UE wants to require that all PhD students be dues-paying members of the union, including new graduate students who arrive in future years. The union sees this provision as essential to its survival because its membership turns over every four to six years, and it does not want the burden of constantly convincing new students to join.
Some graduate students have complained to the President and Provost that a union shop limits the academic freedom of graduate students. Some graduate students may not believe in belonging to a union. Others object to being forced to subsidize political views, such as the CGSU-UE’s pro-Palestinian stance.
When Cornell challenged the CGSU-UE union shop proposal, the local’s union leaders accused Cornell of being right-wing, anti-union, and Nazis. On Jan 23, President Koitlikoff and Provost Bala sent out an email and posted a formal statement explaining those attacks and claiming that “Accepting a union shop provision would mean requiring every one of our graduate student workers to affiliate with, and financially support, this advocacy. Typically, union dues support both representational activities and political advocacy.”
The email explained Day Hall’s reasoning based on academic freedom principles.
“[I]f the university were to agree to the union shop stipulation the CGSU-UE is now demanding, students who decline to join the union could be dismissed from their appointments and prohibited from holding future appointments. These students would no longer have a viable path to a degree at Cornell. Under the proposed union shop agreement, there is no option for students to remain graduate assistants if they object to joining the union. This would be deeply unfair to our students, incompatible with our commitment to academic freedom, and detrimental to our future ability to attract the most promising students to Cornell.”
By sending the email directly to everybody, Cornell is saying a firm “no.”
Prospect of a Strike?
This impasse put the union leadership, particularly the outside advisors from the UE national office, in a tough position. Without a union shop, the number of dues-paying members will dwindle over time, and UE would never recover their initial organizing expenses. Because Cornell remains open to considering alternative proposals on the union shop issues, the union can’t claim that Cornell is violating federal laws by committing an unfair labor practice. Realistically, with control of the NLRB shifting to Trump appointees, it may be tough for the union to force the organizing of graduate students for at least the next four years.
When other universities reached a bargaining impasse, the graduate students went out on strike. Boston University went out on a seven-month strike. In 2022, the University of California system had a 5-week-long strike. During the strike, the UE national union would pay strike benefits to graduate students who actually strike.
The CGSU-UE is now raising the prospect of a near-term strike. The union’s website explains, “CGSU-UE’s position has always been, and remains, that Union Shop is the only path to a contract. The future of our union relies on Union Shop as it is the fundamental mechanism to achieving power in numbers that we will need to defend against assaults on our rights.” In response, CGSU-UE held a membership meeting on January 23 and scheduled “Strike Assessment Trainings” in February to “Learn about strike strategy and ensure we are prepared for our future escalation.”
Cornell and the union are offering two conflicting views of the dispute. The union has repeatedly promised that the pay raises it seeks will be funded by a transfer of funds from the central administration into the individual departments. Meanwhile, Cornell claims that each department would have to re-arrange its limited budget to find funding for the more costly PhD student stipends. The union argues that the only way to find out the truth is to force the issue with a strike.
Fellowships
One barrier to a strike is the question of whether “fellows” – PhD students who are receiving fellowships – are included in the union. Donors endow fellowships so that grad students can get a PhD without having to teach or serve as a professor’s research assistant. Yet, a certain amount of teaching or research is required for the degree. Cornell argues that fellows are not employees because their work is not paid but rather part of being a student, just like taking graduate-level classes.
Because the fellowship stipend reflects the payout from specific endowment accounts or external gifts, it is not clear whether the union can command a 29.31% across-the-board increase for each of these students.
As a practical matter, it boils down to whether the fellows are willing to risk their fellowships to go on strike to benefit the other graduate students who do not have funding. During any strike, one of the main issues that would be negotiated would be whether fellows are covered or excluded from the collective bargaining agreement.
In sum, the battle lines over the unionization of Cornell’s graduate students are being drawn.
