Cornell Graduate Students United (UE Local 300) represents over 3,000 graduate workers at Cornell University doing teaching and research work across several of Cornell’s campuses. Graduate workers organized because we faced issues with compensation, protections for international workers, transportation, vision and dental insurance coverage, overwork, arbitrary discipline and job insecurity, and discrimination. Our unionization drive was sparked by the Covid-19 pandemic. Unlike professors and students, graduate workers were not allowed to choose to work virtually. Bargaining committee member Marguerite Pacheco remembers this vividly. “Graduate workers were required to be in-person at the whims of our supervisors, because of our essential worker status. We are essential. But we don’t have agency.” On November 9, 2023, CGSU-UE won our union election with a 96 percent supermajority.
Turmoil and Triumph in Spring of 2024
CGSU-UE began bargaining our first contract on March 25, 2024. Despite our decisive victory, Cornell University only offered half days for bargaining, held virtually, which elicited concern that they would draw out contract negotiations. CGSU-UE held a successful rally for more bargaining dates in April of 2024 and full-day, in-person bargaining sessions began soon after.
As bargaining began, protests against the genocide in Palestine swept across campuses including at Cornell, and Cornell introduced the controversial Interim Expressive Activity Policy (IEAP) which severely restricted everyone’s right to protest on campus. Specific to our union, this constituted a change to our working conditions, and Cornell implemented this without bargaining with CGSU-UE. Cornell disciplined graduate workers under the IEAP despite the fact that they had never bargained with us over the IEAP. This discipline side-stepped due process and proceeded with the suspension of international graduate workers, threatening their visas.
In response, CGSU-UE members launched a petition against the suspensions that garnered thousands of signatures. With an eight-foot long list of signatures in tow, over one hundred members picketed the next bargaining session; chanting, drumming, and speeches were audible in the bargaining room. Upon confronting Cornell’s bargaining committee with the fact that Cornell disciplined our members under a policy that they should have bargained over, CGSU-UE won a Memorandum of Agreement that enables us to bargain over the effects of any discipline that impacts employment. For the first time, the suspension of grad workers could be challenged! Petitions, rallies, picketing, and a press conference, organized alongside a community of advocates, were vital to pushing back against political repression of our members.
A Productive Summer
A productive summer of bargaining commenced. A strong grievance procedure, which includes providing interim relief measures while grievances are being processed, was an early and exciting win. This is a vital cornerstone to the strength of every union and is the framework through which the contract is upheld. The international worker rights article won timely access to vital paperwork that ensures legal status for international workers. The undocumented and DACA employee rights article holds Cornell to sanctuary campus standards, which are more vital than ever.
We won the right to accessible workplaces in our accommodations article which had been an issue for many workers, especially coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic. Previously, graduate workers only had guaranteed access to accommodations for class work, but not for their work duties as teaching and research assistants. Further, the article guarantees that accommodations can be accessed in a timely manner, addressing the months-long wait that graduate workers regularly face. We won the most powerful workload article in the industry. This article protects graduate workers from going over their listed hours for all of their research and teaching work. These wins could not have happened without the moving testimonies of workers affected by these articles at negotiations and rallies, and without the hundreds of workers who turned out for a mid-summer rally in blistering heat.
The 2024 fall semester began with another round of Cornell issuing suspensions that threatened the visas of international workers. Cornell University was exposed time and time again for blatant disregard of due process in the pursuit of discriminatory and targeted discipline. CGSU-UE launched a campus-wide petition to restore the student status of the affected workers, especially international worker Momodou Taal, and demanded to bargain over the effects of these disciplinary measures. This became a national story, resulting in statements from Senators and Congressional representatives. On October 2, over 300 graduate workers rallied and marched to the administrative building that houses the disciplinary offices. We heard speeches from graduate workers including Taal, elected officials, and university faculty who are against academic repression. On October 9, CGSU-UE held an open bargaining session and packed the room with over 110 union members, with over fifteen sibling unions joining virtually. The disciplined graduate workers, sibling unions, and CGSU-UE bargaining committee members gave statements demanding just cause and nondiscrimination protections.
Finn West, one of the disciplined workers, remarked across the bargaining table, “What you are actually doing is protecting your own power over the campus community. That is why graduate students are being suspended for protesting, that is why you have so far refused to bargain over our suspensions.”
At around 3 PM, word came through that Cornell had taken de-enrollment, and thus deportation, off of the table and agreed to bargain over the remaining effects of Taal’s discipline.
At the same time, CGSU-UE was building pressure around the appointment security article, which outlines the process through which graduate workers can access transitional funding and switch academic advisors if needed. A part of this article is academic due process. This protects graduate workers from being put into bad academic standing — and thus losing their funding and ability to remain graduate student workers — for arbitrary reasons. There had been cases of graduate student workers having their past Student Progress Reports — documents akin to report cards that grad workers’ supervisors must sign off on each year — being retroactively changed to justify the firing of a worker, among other egregious examples of baseless academic discipline. Historically, there were “academic distinctions” where union protections could not cover such discipline as they are “academic” in nature. However, academic evaluations like the Student Progress Report and milestone exams determine if graduate student workers can keep their employment. On December 5, CGSU-UE became the first graduate union to win due process rights for academic standing! This sets the stage for more graduate locals to win this essential protection in their next contract negotiations.
Strike Threat Secures Union Security and Discipline Protections
Also in the background was a growing tension around our union security article. We proposed a legally standard union shop provision. On December 5, as the dust from the presidential election settled, Cornell counterproposed with an open shop provision, which shocked local unions and labor scholars. A strong union security article is the foundation of a union that can effectively fight for its members, and is standard in New York state and for other unions at Cornell. Open shops are an invention of segregationists who knew that strong, democratic, inclusive unions were a threat to exploitative bosses. Cornell University cited a minute number of politically connected anti-union graduate student workers as the reason that they had to “disempower thousands of workers across campus and threaten a precedent that is the lifeblood of unions everywhere,” according to CGSU-UE organizers. Graduate workers understood that this was a thin veil over the anti-union stance that Cornell University was preparing to take to maintain unilateral power. Economic issues were put on the table, and a new phase of bargaining began.
As Cornell refused to move off of their open shop proposal, CGSU-UE organized for a potential strike in the early months of 2025. Hundreds of organizers attended strike assessment trainings and organized educational sessions about union security provisions. Cornell University sent fear-mongering emails that garnered criticism from those in the legal world. Angela Davis, a renowned political activist and scholar, loudly and publicly criticized Cornell’s anti-union actions during her packed lecture. After weeks and weeks of Cornell returning no meaningful counterproposals, CGSU-UE gave Cornell a deadline: whatever was on the table by April 1 was going to a membership vote as their last, best, and final offer. CGSU-UE membership could not wait another semester for a contract, and we would not allow Cornell to drag their feet until the summer when striking would be difficult.
All of this was occurring in the context of the Trump administration's attacks on higher education and immigrants. Science funding was under attack and entire labs lost their funding overnight. Humanities and social science disciplines were told that they would be monitored in their work. Immigrants were being targeted for deportation again, but this time by the federal government directly, including Taal here at Cornell. Cornell’s Student Code of Conduct case against Taal was cited by ICE and the State Department in their removal orders. Every graduate student worker on campus felt the increasing precarity. We needed just cause protections, and we needed union shop to enforce it.
Cornell doubled down on their open shop proposal, and placed two “offers” on the table on March 11. In short, Cornell offered up one package with some important benefits like transportation and dental and vision coverage as well as what purported to be an agency shop clause, but was effectively an open shop. If we did not accept the package by March 25, Cornell claimed that they could only offer a second package, which had benefits that were unacceptable to membership. We told Cornell that there would not be a contract without a union shop provision.
“No open shop grad worker local has majority membership, leading to fewer people holding Cornell accountable to follow our contract. Cornell wants to create an environment in which they do not have to follow our contract and maintain unchecked power,” explained bargaining committee member Ewa Nizalowska.
We launched our strike pledge on March 13 in a packed lecture hall with hundreds of graduate student workers. Workers shared why they were willing to strike. “I’m willing to strike for higher wages because of my past self that couldn’t afford groceries after moving to Ithaca,” said a first year graduate worker. Graduate locals and UE locals from across the country Zoomed in to share support and wisdom. Over 1,000 members signed their strike pledges within 48 hours. Cornell offered more bargaining days, moved significantly on our union security article at the following bargaining session.
The fight was not yet over. Even as union security was settled, our strike threat grew as workers rallied in solidarity with fellow workers facing funding cuts and federal targeting. A fair wage and just cause protections for all types of discipline were still on the table. Strike captains were training, hardship funds were being gathered, and workers prepared to strike. Across campus, graduate workers were rallying for science, immigrants, unions, academic freedom, and each other. On March 24 a breakthrough was made on discipline and discharge, where graduate student workers could now grieve if interim disciplinary measures — such as suspensions — were unreasonable. Further, the effects of non-appointment-related discipline could be grieved if they were not fair, equitable, or reasonable. This is another first for a graduate worker union in our industry. The ability to grieve non-appointment-related discipline is a massive win for graduate locals across the country!
The last day concluded negotiating over our duration article for an in-semester end date to the contract. This secures our ability to strike over the next contract if needed. The CGSU-UE bargaining committee almost had to walk out as Cornell attempted to retract their offer but after several hours Cornell returned with a reasonable date, and it was done. Fourteen articles were signed on the last day, March 25, exactly one year since the start of bargaining.
On April 11 the tentative agreement was ratified with a 97 percent “yes” vote. The ratification bonus is rolling out, free TCAT passes are activating, and our local’s Constitutional Committee is drafting our first constitution. The local is excited to begin enforcing this contract and building an active and proud union that protects all workers.
The Local 300 bargaining committee consisted of Amrit Kwatra, Amy Tsai, Arnav Gupta, Ben Keller, Catie Ball, Connor Davis, Daphne Blakey, Emmy Marra, Evan Heberlein, Ewa Nizalowska, Hannah Zonneyville, Jawuanna McAllister, Jean-Michel Mutore, Jenna Marvin, Kara Zielinski, Katrina Davis, Margaret Foster, Marguerite Pacheco, Michelle Bui, Rachel Chang, Rosamond Thalken, Takshil Sachdev, and Tamara Walsky. They were assisted by UE Coordinator for Higher Education Valentina Luketa and Field Organizers Alec Pollak, Michelle Bui, and Sharif Ewais-Orozco.