IU grad workers move forward with union plans

Indiana University graduate students are taking the next steps to unionize, as the Indiana Graduate Workers Coalition is organizing an attempt to join United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America.

Building on the impact of its past fee strikes, the IGWC members hope joining a union might bolster their fight for increased compensation, lower fees and improved communication with IU leadership.

"At this point we are seeking more than just a guarantee of dialogue," said Cole Nelson, an IU graduate worker and one of the IGWC organizers. "We're not looking for administrators to be advocates for graduate workers. Rather, we're looking for a permanent resolution to the fact that graduate workers, time and time again, are being charged increasingly by the university while receiving substandard compensation."

From January:IU grad students pledge fee strike to increase standard of living

Nelson and the IGWC are unhappy with IU leaders, saying leadership refuses to meet with them about issues regarding fees and compensation. 

Now affiliated with the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, IGWC began the process of getting graduate workers to sign union card petitions this past summer. If the group gets a majority of graduate workers to sign up, IGWC will then approach university leadership and ask them to hold a union election.

According to Nelson, the goal is to present the petition to IU in the next few months. "We're doing everything we can to sign up graduate workers at a fairly rapid pace in order to present that petition to the university at some point this semester."

From March:IU graduate students protest fees outside Bryan Hall

"At our university, there are several departments that have not seen raises in a matter of years while fees and costs of living have, with each passing year, steadily increased," he said.

Nelson is heartened by gains made in terms of reductions in fees and tuition costs. "I'm entirely optimistic." When asked whether he draws hope from new IU President Pamela Whitten's student-centric approach, Nelson said it is too early to tell. "It's very hard to say. We're still sort of seeing how the tenure of Pamela Whitten is going to play out. She's yet to speak to the benefit of graduate workers in any explicit way and there's the vacant permanent position of provost at IU Bloomington."

Some might wonder why graduate workers would join an electrical workers union, but the choice makes sense given UE's history. Mark Meinster, an international representative for UE, explained this is a natural fit. "We've represented graduate employees at the University of Iowa, another Big Ten institution, for 25 years now and have represented workers all throughout higher education for several decades now."

According to Meinster, the graduate workers on the ground at IU are the ones leading the charge for unionization. "This is really an effort that's being led by graduate workers themselves, and you know, they've been really building on a foundation that they've already built," he said. "Our role is really providing the guidance and assistance and training they need, but the way our union works is we believe the workers themselves are best positioned to lead the effort to improve conditions."

Caleb Klipowicz is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Iowa, where the Campaign to Organize Graduate Students has been part of UE since 1996.

"Here in Iowa, before a lot of the Big Ten, we had special health insurance, an actual living wage for a year and tuition remissions. All these kinds of things wouldn't be possible without being unionized with someone, at the very least," he said.

Klipowicz is happy with the kind of the kind of support UE offers to the graduate workers at Iowa.

"In my experience, UE provides us resources and support that we need to organize ourselves, but they don't control our agenda or set what priorities we need to go after," he said.

Meinster said moves toward unionization reflect changing responsibilities and attitudes at universities. "I think the overall factor is the work itself. I think it's the fact that the work has really intensified as teaching, research and academic labor has shifted from full-time, tenured professors toward adjunct professors and graduate employees, and that's really the trend that has been driving this movement," Meinster said. "Of course, with the pandemic and the additional issues that has raised, workers want a voice over the impact of decisions around the effects of the pandemic."

An Indiana University spokesperson declined to comment for this story.