On Thursday, September 28, Cornell Graduate Students United (“CGSU” or the “union”) requested that the university voluntarily recognize the union as the exclusive bargaining representative for Cornell graduate students. Shortly thereafter on the same day, the union also filed a petition for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The petition is available online. Given the union’s petition, the university has engaged with the NLRB and the union to negotiate a Stipulated Election Agreement which sets forth the details surrounding a union election and describes which students are eligible to vote in such election. Eligible students will then vote in the election to determine if such students wish to be represented by the union.

An election for eligible graduate assistants to determine if they will be exclusively represented for purposes of collective bargaining by CGSU and UE will be held on the Ithaca, Geneva, and Cornell Tech campuses. There will be three polling places:

• Ithaca campus: Big Red Barn Graduate and Professional Student Center, November 6-8, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. and 4 p.m.-9 p.m.
• Cornell Tech campus: The Ph.D. Lounge, November 6 from 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
• Cornell Geneva campus: Room 216 in Jordan Hall, November 6 from 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

The outcome of the election will be decided by a simple majority of those who vote.

The election will be conducted by the NLRB. Cornell will physically post and electronically distribute a Notice of Election to each eligible voter. Individuals with questions about their eligibility should contact the NLRB. Electioneering will be prohibited within 100 feet of any voting location.

CGSU stands for “Cornell Graduate Students United” and is an organization comprised of Cornell graduate students performing teaching or research services who are looking to form a union. CGSU has announced its affiliation with the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE), which is a national union representing workers across the country in a variety of manufacturing, public sector and private service-sector jobs. Student unions at MIT, Stanford, Dartmouth, and Chicago are also affiliated with the UE. Only MIT has completed the bargaining process with the UE.

Cornell respects the important role of labor unions in our workplace. The university is not taking a formal position during this process, but believes that all graduate students should explore the implications unionization may have on their education and the university.

University leaders believe that graduate students who serve as teaching or research assistants are primarily students and serve in those roles to further their academic progress, and having an outside, non-academic third party—like a union—involved in academic affairs could change the graduate student experience. Therefore, it is important for you to be informed about unionization before deciding whether union representation is right for you. 

Regardless of whether or not graduate students join a union, Cornell remains deeply committed to supporting students in their academic pursuits and assistantship roles.  Student ideas and voices can currently be advanced through the GPSA, which actively invites participation from constituent graduate and professional students in Cornell’s system of shared governance.

Cornell has a long history of collaborative labor relations with eight labor unions in Ithaca, Buffalo and New York City, some relationships exceeding 50 years, representing almost 2,000 staff members in such areas as dining, the Central Energy Plant, the Cornell Police, and Transportation Services. For more information on unions at the university, visit the Union Contracts page on the Human Resources webpage.

The NLRB is an independent federal agency created by the U.S. Congress in 1935 to enforce the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). The NLRA is the federal labor law that sets forth the rights of employees, unions and employers in, among other things, collective bargaining, representation elections, and protected concerted activity.

A union is an organized group of employees formed to negotiate with their employer over matters related to wages, hours and other terms and conditions of employment. If a union is certified as a representative for a group of employees, union representatives negotiate with employers through a process called collective bargaining, and both parties are bound by the terms of the resulting contract.

A union represents employees in an appropriate bargaining unit that has been certified by the NLRB or otherwise agreed to by the union and the institution. A “bargaining unit” is a group of employees who have common terms and conditions of employment that the union seeks to organize as one group.

The parties, including the NLRB, have determined that the individuals eligible to vote in this election are graduate students enrolled in Ph.D. and master’s degree programs at the Ithaca, Geneva, and Cornell Tech campuses who receive a stipend from Cornell University to provide teaching or research services in titles including teaching assistants, graduate research assistants, research assistants, or graduate assistants.

There are several steps to forming a union. Typically, it begins with union organizers seeking to collect authorization cards from potential bargaining unit members, i.e., the group of graduate students the union seeks to represent. If the union organizers collect signed authorization cards from at least 30% of the potential bargaining unit members, they can file a petition to hold an election as to whether they should be the union representing the university’s graduate students.  There are also other pathways to unionization.

An authorization card drive is often one of the first steps toward establishing a union to represent members of a bargaining unit. Authorization cards are legally binding documents signed by individuals indicating the signer supports holding a union election and authorizes the union to become their exclusive representative for purposes of negotiating the terms and conditions of their employment. Authorization cards may also be signed using an online form.

In the case of graduate student unionization, typically union representatives or interested graduate students will ask graduate students in the potential bargaining unit to sign a card authorizing the union to act as their exclusive representative for purposes of negotiating with the university. Graduate students have the right to sign, or refuse to sign, authorization cards without coercion from anyone.

No. The act of signing an authorization card does not commit the signer to vote in any particular way in a union representation election. Each eligible voter is free to vote in an election either for or against union representation.

Yes, if you are an eligible voter in the bargaining unit. All eligible voters will be free to vote however they want, regardless of whether they previously signed an authorization card or not.

Union organizers may be on campus to share information about the union and encourage membership.  It is your personal choice whether to speak with an organizer, or not. 

Dues are the fees that members pay to belong in a union. A union’s primary source of revenue is collecting dues from members. Unions charge dues to their members to fund the operations of the union. Dues can range in amount. Each union establishes its own dues formula, but they are typically up to 2% of the students’ total compensation per semester. Unions may also charge an initiation fee to join. In most cases, if agreed to in a collective bargaining agreement, union dues are automatically deducted out of a paycheck and given directly to the union. Some union contracts provide that payment of union dues or agency fees are a condition of holding an appointment.

Graduate students who choose not to join the union would not have to pay dues, but they may have to pay agency fees. Under federal law, if provided for in a collective bargaining agreement, a union can compel members of a bargaining unit either to become dues-paying union members or to pay the union an agency or representation fee. Agency fees are used to pay for the costs associated with union operations such as collective bargaining and contract administration. Agency fee amounts are set by the union, but are typically equivalent to the amount of union dues.

The NLRA requires employers and unions to bargain with respect to wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment – concepts referred to as “mandatory subjects of bargaining” that the NLRB and federal courts have interpreted broadly. Due to limited rulings and a lack of established precedent, the NLRB and federal courts have offered little clarity as to what are “terms and conditions of employment” for graduate students whose teaching and research is part of their academic training. Ultimately, the NLRB’s guidance in this area is extremely limited in the academic context and remains to be fully developed.

If a union is certified it is unknown precisely what issues will be introduced by the union during bargaining.

There is no mandated timetable for negotiations.  Some contract negotiations move quickly, while other negotiations involve many issues that are not easily resolved and take much longer. A 2021 analysis conducted and published by Bloomberg Law found that first contracts took an average of 409 days to negotiate.  If a union is certified, Cornell would bargain in good faith towards reaching a contract.

Currently, the GPSA, which includes all Cornell graduate and professional students, has an effective working relationship with Graduate School leadership, the leadership of colleges that offer professional degrees, and the university administration as a whole. 

GPSA meets regularly and provides an opportunity for graduate and professional students across Cornell to share experiences and opportunities common to their student experience at Cornell. 

A union would be the exclusive voice to Cornell for all students it represents on terms and conditions of employment—issues such as pay, work hours, and other matters related to their work.

We hope that input from the GPSA would continue to be a part of Cornell’s shared governance. We value this relationship with the GPSA and are concerned how working through a non-academic third party (e.g., a union) could affect future engagement and collaboration. In some circumstances, federal law prohibits the university from setting up advisory committees with graduate student members without union consent.

In the past, Cornell worked collaboratively and successfully with its graduate students to implement various changes and improvements in various elements of the graduate student experience, including stipends, family services, child care grants, health and well-being, graduate student injuries, diversity, parking and transportation, and housing. ​

Most recently, these include:

• A suite of policy changes in 2023 to help to ensure current doctoral students have the financial support they need to successfully complete their degrees
• Expanded parking permit options for graduate students on assistantships
• An 8% increase in graduate student stipends for the 2023-2024 academic year
• Funds for graduate students receiving Sage Fellowships to bolster their summer funding in 2023
• Revised English language proficiency guidelines by which applicants can attest to their fluency in English as a first language in order to be admitted into a graduate program at Cornell

That is unknown. While supporters of graduate student unions might believe that current stipend levels, benefits, etc. will only improve through collective bargaining, there is no guarantee that will be the case. It is important to note that the law does not require either a union or management to agree to any contract proposal.