MIT graduate college students vote to unionize

Election comes after MIT declined to conception union

By Shelley Choi

Apr. 8, 2022

MIT graduate college students voted to unionize with the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of The USA (UE), Chancellor Melissa Nobles and Vice Chancellor Ian Waitz announced in an electronic mail to the MIT group April 6.

75% of three,823 eligible graduate college students voted, with 1,785 college students (66%) vote casting in prefer of unionization and 912 college students (34%) vote casting in opposition to, in conserving with results announced by the National Labor Kinfolk Board (NLRB). Elections had been held on April 4–5 in Walker Memorial’s Morss Hall.

The MIT Graduate Student Union (GSU), the foremost campaign organizers on the abet of the route to unionization, also announced the use on Twitter. They noted that the “historical victory for student-workers at MIT” used to be by a “landslide margin” and formally renamed themselves as “MIT GSU-UE.” The GSU connected a photo of their first meeting four years ago the keep “a dozen college students in an MIT lecture room” had been “discussing the needs of graduate workers.” 

The election comes after the GSU wrote a letter to the MIT administration asking to be “known voluntarily” because the “legitimate bargaining representatives for graduate workers.” After the administration declined, the GSU wrote that “MIT administration hoped to extend our vote by triggering a lengthy correct project.” In response, the GSU agreed to beginning a “two-step election project” to “glean recognition” on the NLRB. 

Consistent with the GSU roadmap, the “organizing campaign doesn’t ease up after an election victory.” The subsequent step is to barter a contract, which is the “precise aim of the campaign.” They wish to “precise a union contract,” which is a “doc that the union and the employer negotiate and signal, holding every thing from wages to how disputes shall be handled.” 

Nobles and Waitz wrote in their electronic mail that they are “grateful to many members of our group on every aspect of the debate” for taking part “constructively and respectfully in this dialog.” They had been “heartened” by the “creep commitment to the neatly-being and success” of college students. In addition they shared congratulations for members of the GSU for his or her “four years of devoted work that culminated in this election.” 

They wrote that they agree there are “areas the keep MIT can toughen,” and that they “share many of the identical goals” because the GSU. Consistent with the GSU’s net website online, these goals embrace “reasonable housing, dental insurance, protections and advantages for world college students, and superb and creep job expectations.” 

Nobles and Waitz wrote they quiz MIT’s representatives to meet with MIT GSU and UE leaders to “commence correct-faith negotiations” over “terms and prerequisites of employment.” 

They wrote that of the 12,000 MIT college students (including these ineligible to vote), “now now not up to a Third” are represented by the union. They wrote the administration will “continue to uphold our responsibility to every student” and “work collectively” no subject school students’ union affiliation.

The UE wrote on a Fb post that this used to be “one of many largest NLRB elections in the previous few years.” Ed Markey, the U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, tweeted his congratulations to GSU workers who “jointed collectively for the rights and protections they deserve.” Bernie Sanders, the U.S. Senator from Vermont, also tweeted his congratulations, writing that he hopes “on the present time’s victory inspires a nationwide crawl of workers on campuses fighting for better pay.”