UE in the News

In its first 24 hours, the new union—affiliated with the United Electrical Workers (UE)—gathered more than 1,700 authorization cards representing nearly half the entire bargaining unit. Eight days in, they had a strong majority. And this week they filed for election with 65 percent support.

Such a first day bodes well for the success of the campaign, despite five—count ’em, five—previous election losses in graduate union drives at the University of Minnesota.

The timing couldn’t be better. In a space of just a few months, graduate employee unions across the country have won tremendous victories, by margins that would be the envy of dictators holding sham elections.

Irma Ibarra has worked as an ultrasound tech at the hospital for 19 years without taking a day off, she said in a phone interview Monday from the picket line. However, she said she joined the protest because she didn’t feel like the hospital was treating its workers fairly. 

“I need to support my co-workers and we really need to be heard by the hospital and our management,” said Ibarra, who added that since the pandemic, she regularly works about 30 hours of overtime each pay period.

“They have refused to continue bargaining with us and won’t come to the table to hear our proposals,” said Stacy Suarez, a surgical tech at the hospital and a member member of union negotiating committee.

Workers say the hospital is experiencing high turnover because of low wages and chronic chronic understaffing — factors that undermine patient care.

Suarez said some of the lowest paid workers at Henry Mayo earn less than $17 an hour, while management has offered to boost that to $17.50.

“These are poverty wages,” she said. “In-N-Out pays its workers anywhere from $17 to $19 an hour, and some of our employees went to school for their jobs and carry carry professional certifications.”

Housekeepers across campus have been organizing with The Workers Union [a chapter of UE Local 150] since October to fight for their two demands. Their petition had received over 2,000 signatures as of November, and they were invited into a Board of Trustees meeting where Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz expressed support for their cause and thanked them for speaking.

In December, housekeepers received a 90-cent raise, bringing their hourly wage up to $16.81 — and falling $3.19 short of their request for a $20 hourly wage. Their demand for free parking was also left unaddressed. 

Many housekeepers, organizers and students alike have said these actions by the University have felt superficial and inadequate to their requests.

Meanwhile, the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) recently also issued a strident call for public ownership of railroads to protect the economy, workers, frontline communities and the environment.

“We demand that Congress immediately begin a process of bringing our nation’s railroads under public ownership,” reads the statement from the UE general executive board. The union, which represents electrical workers and other sectors, argues that the major railroad companies — like electric utilities — are ​“natural monopolies,” and have an ​“endless thirst for profit.”

The union argues that nationalization is necessary both to protect workers and to fight climate change and railroad-related pollution that disproportionately impacts communities of color and low-income communities.

The two unions also hope to set a new floor for graduate working conditions in the city. At both universities, the base stipend paid to graduate workers — $33,000 a year at UChicago and $35,196 at Northwestern — is far below Chicago’s living wage of $40,123. ​“I know graduate workers who are on food stamps,” says Brianna Suslovic, a social work Ph.D. student at UChicago. ​“It’s been years since most of us have gone to the dentist because our dental plans are so limited.” Suslovic says inflation has made the cost of living in Hyde Park untenable for many of her colleagues, and in order to survive, most graduate workers are working side-jobs on top of their teaching requirements and regular coursework. ​“Graduate students should not have to work full-time, in addition to being full-time employees of the university,” she adds.