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As a whole separate can of worms for the unionization debate, it seems that even students that want a union are trying to get as far away from UAW representation as possible, though they aren’t necessarily succeeding. I knew that UMass Amherst had had their union made into an administratorship, but I only learned last night that at UCSB graduate students aren’t being represented in negotiations for their own contracts, though they are being asked to strike. A whole separate, independent union, United Student Labor, has been set up, but the UAW is saying that legally they are the only group permitted to bargain with the university. Things sound very bad:

The UAW is calling for a strike authorization vote because UAW contract negotiations with the UC have failed to produce a contract. However, the people that the contract negotiations and the related strike authorization vote will affect most–that is, UCSB graduate students like you and me–have not had any input into this strategy. As many of you already know, we no longer have any elected representatives on the UAW bargaining team and, since November, the UAW has not even allowed us to observe the local negotiations here at UCSB. Furthermore, the UAW staff have refused to provide any substantive information on the proceedings of the negotiations (e.g. to GSA President Grace Credo). And despite our repeated objections, the UAW has so far ignored our insistence that important contract items such as our right to strike, our protection from discrimination, and a variety of other important topics not be negotiated away without our informed consent.

While the original union representatives did resign, due to conflict with the UAW, it is outrageous that new representatives were not recognized. This belies any claims that the UAW will leave graduate student issues up to the graduate students, and are only involved as a provider of money and legal resources. The UAW will have the legal right to step in, and it has shown itself willing to.
I once heard a union activist say “I’d rather have other graduate students determining my contract than the administration.” Well, I’d rather have my contract in the hands of Cornell than the UAW.

The Cornell Daily Sun had a sadly one-sided, and occassionally incorrect article on unionization in its first edition of the semester, including the false title Graduate Students To Elect Union Reps; we only elect representatives if we first vote to form a union. Of course, the article ignores that there might be any graduate student opposition, simplifying the situation to one of a fight between graduate students and the administration. I suppose, with that view of the world, it is a reasonable jump from Cornell’s agreement not to appeal the election, but hopefully the vote isn’t as sure as all that. Certainly, anecdotal evidence suggests that students signed cards either not understanding that they implied support for the union or in order to get union activists out of their hair.
Also interesting in the article:

Facing similar student unionization movements, Columbia and Brown universities appealed the NYU case and are currently awaiting a decision from the full NLRB.
“If the Brown and Columbia appeal is victorious and we haven’t signed a contract, then we could be back to square one,” said Robb Willer, grad, another organizer of the CASE/UAW.

So, part of the motivation for a quick union vote is to push a union through before the NLRB decides we aren’t actually eligible for unionization. This makes Cornell’s concessions even more surprising and conciliatory.
And, because I’m hoping to push some Google points its way, I’ll mention again that ‘At What Cost?’ is reaching out to graduate students concerned about unionization at Cornell.

My weblogging time over the past couple of days has been taken up with a real-life project, but at least it’s one with a web presence. At What Cost? is a group of graduate students who are concerned about the current unionization process taking place at Cornell. You can go there to read about some of the concerns the group has; we’ve tried to put together a comprehensive and consise list. I’m very interested to see what kind of response it draws, if any. Right now, there’s no way to tell how much support the union has. At the least, I hope the site forces the union people to answer some concrete questions they’ve been avoiding.