GENERAL UNION FAQ
We've compiled a collection of common questions CGSU receives about our unionization effort. Have a question that doesn't appear here? Contact us and ask!
GENERAL QUESTIONS
What is a contract?
A union contract is a written agreement between the employer and the employees, that is voted upon and ratified by all CGSU-UE members, that details the terms and benefits of employment in a clear and legally-binding way. Having a contract ensures that all graduate workers at Cornell University, whether members of the union or not, can clearly understand their rights and obligations as employees of the university. A contract also ensures that all graduate workers have recourse to standardized grievance procedures when the agreed-upon terms and benefits of the contract are violated.
Union contracts are set for specific periods of time (the average in the US being 3-4 years), after which the terms of the contract can be renegotiated and voted upon by the membership.
What does the bargaining process look like?
The bargaining process broadly follows these steps:
1. Bargaining Committee elections: All members of the union will be eligible to vote for nominated Bargaining Committee members to represent them by division/area. The process by which the election will be conducted and the make-up of representatives in the Bargaining Committee (total number and apportionment by division/area) will be based on the model provided by other UE grad unions at MIT, Northwestern, the University of Chicago, and others. These UE-affiliated grad unions have had great success with this model, and CGSU will adapt it to avoid reinventing the wheel and unnecessarily delaying the negotiation of our first contract.
2. Bargaining survey: We will distribute a survey among all graduate workers, asking workers the issues they most care about. Organizers will also carry out walkthroughs and hold department town halls/one-on-ones to solicit feedback on this survey and answer questions about the bargaining process. Based on the survey results, the Bargaining Committee will determine our collective priorities for bargaining.
3. Proposal drafting: The Bargaining Committee will write up an initial draft of the proposal, based on 1) the results from the bargaining survey, 2) contract content from other institutions, and 3) standard legal language from labor relations.
4. Proposal feedback: After finishing the initial draft of contract proposals, the Bargaining Committee will ask membership for feedback on the Bargaining Platform, and will undertake revisions as necessary. Then, the Bargaining Platform will be ratified by all the members.
5. Negotiation with Cornell University administration: The Bargaining Committee will present the proposals to Cornell’s administration. The administration will respond point by point on whether a specific proposal is accepted, rejected, or amended. The administration will also put forth their own proposals. Our Bargaining Committee will consider Cornell administration’s response, and discuss each item during a caucus to make our own set of acceptances, rejections, amendments. These steps will go back and forth until our Bargaining Committee reaches a tentative agreement with Cornell admin. After each session, our Contract Action Team (formerly known as our Organizing Committee) provides updates to the membership about the bargaining process.
All graduate student-workers are strongly encouraged to be engaged throughout the negotiation process. For example, graduate student-workers can continue to participate and take action around the issues that we care about by sharing testimonials or joining the Contract Action Team.
6. Ratification: The tentative agreement agreed to by both the Bargaining Committee and the Cornell administration will be put to a vote among the union membership. The proposal will be put into effect once a majority of the members vote yes on the contract. If the tentative agreement is voted down, we will collectively decide how to put enough pressure on Cornell admin to get them to improve the offer.
What do international grads stand to gain through joining a union?
International grads have many reasons to join a union. Making up around 50% of Cornell grads, international grads tend to be even more impacted by Cornell’s policies than domestic grads. For example, international students’ visas limit the number of hours they can work and prevent them from working off-campus, and many external fellowships and grants are only available to US citizens, making it even more critical that Cornell’s stipends are sufficient to cover living expenses. International students are also required to pay additional visa fees and cover travel expenses. They also often have to navigate an unfamiliar tax and immigration system, on top of figuring out housing, transportation, and healthcare in a new country.
BARGAINING COMMITTEE
What's the Bargaining Committee?
The bargaining committee is a set of representatives elected from CGSU’s membership. This committee is responsible for developing a first contract that directly addresses the needs of the Cornell grads that comprise our union. The bargaining committee has have both bargaining and organizing responsibilities in order to ensure that strong proposals are drafted and are supplemented by membership action when our collective strength is needed to secure wins!
CONTRACT ACTION TEAM (CAT)
What is the Contract Action Team (CAT)?
The CAT is a group of graduate workers who organize the union's power on campus so that the BC can have the leverage needed to succeed in negotiations. The CAT also keeps the general membership informed throughout the bargaining process. If Cornell admin can sense that the union is no larger than the 25 graduate workers at the bargaining table, they will concede nothing; admin must instead see the union in 1000s of graduate workers across campus, organized and mobilized by CAT to respond to the state of negotiations and support their BC.
Who can serve on the CAT?
Anyone who wants us to win a strong contract and will to organize the union! A strong CAT has 100s of members who together can activate 1000s of graduate workers. Our own CAT at Cornell will be an expansion of our existing Organizing Committee (OC) intended to meet the organizing needs of the contract fight, and will no longer be just a place for Department Organizers (DOs). Rather, DOs and non-DOs alike are encouraged to be involved in the CAT at a range of different commitment levels.
How can I get involved in the CAT?
You can sign up to join the CAT by filling out this form or by contacting one of your Department Organizers!
What will CAT members be expected to do?
As always, the basic work of organizing leverage requires a willingness to have conversations with labmates, coworkers and friends to build majority support and participation in actions including: flyering, doing walkthroughs, running petitions, turning folks out to rallies and meetings, etc. After each bargaining session, the CAT consults with BC, updates the membership on what has occurred, and employs the strategic tools in their toolbox to help move the balance of power on campus in the BC's favor.
The bargaining survey is another immediate job which resembles an internal power analysis of our union, also to inform strategy: what are our deepest, widest felt issues to be addressed in a contract? how much risk will we take to secure one contract provision vs. another? in which departments do a majority of graduate workers respond or fail to respond when our CAT distributes it?
CAT members can join various teams as well:
Comms - helps create graphics, newsletters, op-eds, edit the website etc. to keep info up to date
Research - helps us keep a finger on the issues affecting us as grad workers to develop proposals and actions to address them in our contract fight
Budget - assisting with fiscal planning
Solidarity - building coalition with sister UE unions (NUGW, TRU-Johns Hopkins, MITGSU, Princeton GSU, NMSU, UNM), UChicago unions (NNU, SEIU, Teamsters), campus and community orgs, and more
Member education/trainings
Direct action and event planning
INTERNATIONAL GRAD FAQ
Do international grad workers have a right to participate in union activity?
Yes!
Your employee rights are the same as those of domestic employees, regardless of your immigration status. All employees in the U.S., regardless of national origin or immigration/visa status, can belong to a union and participate in legal union activities. This includes the right to: sign a union card and vote in union elections; organize with a union to negotiate better working conditions; talk about working conditions with your co-workers or a union; and take action with your co-workers to improve your working conditions.
How would striking work for international grads?
International students have the same rights as U.S. citizens and permanent residents to participate in union activity, including strikes. Thousands of international student workers across the U.S. have been active in unions, including strikes, for more than 40 years, including here at Cornell. The administration’s anti-strike and anti-union campaigns often target international students’ fears about precarity about their immigration status. However, any retaliation from Cornell resulting from your union activity is illegal.
Could I be retaliated against/could my visa status be jeopardized if I'm involved in unionizing as an international student?
In nearly 40 years of graduate employee unionization, there has been no reported instance of any international student having issues with the law or with their employment status as a result of joining or participating in a union. The National Labor Relations Act protects the right of all employees in the US, regardless of visa status, to join or participate in a union. It would be illegal for your employer to retaliate against you for joining a union or working with other students to try to improve our working conditions. In addition, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) cannot ask you about participation in lawful union activity.
UNION CARDS
What does signing a union card mean?
By signing a union card, you express your support for the formation of a graduate worker union at Cornell. A union is the best, and really only, way that we have the legal power to fight for the issues on our platform. In other words, it’s the first step toward improving our lives as graduate workers: first, we sign cards, then we form a union, and finally, we can begin to negotiate with Cornell.
More specifically, when you sign a card, you call on Cornell to voluntarily recognize a graduate worker union immediately or hold an election for all graduate workers to vote on whether they want a union to represent them and negotiate with Cornell to better their working conditions.
Who will see my union card? A.k.a., is my union card confidential?
We want to be proud and vocal in our support for our union! We are strongest—and safest—when we’re public, because that shows that the University can’t intimidate us, and if they try to retaliate against any one of us, we have clear evidence of it. It’s important to remember that CGSU won’t be filing cards until we reach a supermajority of grads on cards, which means 1,500+ grads on cards! What difference does it make to you to know that you’ll be one of 1,500+ people? All this being said, signing a union card is confidential. Your union card will only be seen by National Labor Relations Board officials and by CGSU organizers entering data.
My card says the “United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America” (UE). What’s UE?
UE is a national union with which we voted to affiliate. It’s an umbrella organization that helps support our work with advice and, in a limited capacity, legal and financial resources. CGSU organizers voted to affiliate with UE because they have an incredible track record organizing graduate workers. In the past two years, thousands of graduate workers at our peer institutions, including MIT, Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, UChicago, and Stanford, have formed unions with UE. UE, in other words, knows how to work with graduate workers. We also voted to affiliate with UE because they permit us to run our union how we want. We set our priorities, strategies, and agenda democratically.
My union card asks for my “job title.” What is it?
Job titles for grad workers at Cornell include: Research Assistant (RA), Teaching Assistant (TA), GRA (Graduate Research Assistant), GA (Graduate Assistant), and Fellow. Please list the title that is on your appointment letter!
Are there dues associated with signing?
No. Official union dues start after we ratify our first contract, and will be more than covered by the raise we negotiate in that contract. We all vote on our first contract—we would never vote for a contract that doesn’t give us a raise overall.
The union card says I’m authorizing the union to represent me and on my behalf negotiate. What does that mean?
The union is all of us! We are forming a union to have a voice and to improve our quality of life, not to restrict any of us. After winning our union election, every grad worker will elect our coworkers to the bargaining committee, who will negotiate with the University to improve our working, learning, and research conditions. The bargaining committee will come to a tentative agreement with the employer, and then we’ll have the chance to vote on whether we want to ratify that agreement, or send the committee back to the bargaining table to keep fighting for more.
What will happen after we sign cards?
After a supermajority of graduate workers sign union cards, CGSU organizers will bring the cards to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) office in Buffalo, NY. That is the office that oversees labor issues in Ithaca. The NLRB will process the cards and will then schedule a unionization election. In that election, each graduate student in the bargaining unit will get to vote in a secret ballot about whether they want to be represented by CGSU. Once we win a union, we can then begin bargaining over a contract.
COMMMON ANTI-UNION MYTHS
Myth: “A union is a third party that would interfere with the relationships between graduate workers and their advisors.”
Reality: Graduate worker unions are made of graduate workers, and as graduate workers, we are the union. The leadership committee is and will always be made of democratically elected graduate workers, as will the committee that negotiates our contract with Cornell.
Myth: “Union dues will cut into my paycheck, and only graduate workers who are actively teaching or conducting research would benefit from unionization.”
Reality: No one will pay dues until we have a contract, and we won’t accept a contract that would result in any net decrease in earnings. It’s just not in our interest!
Myth: “You can’t join a union unless you’re a US citizen.”
Reality: Anyone can join a union regardless of citizenship or immigration status.
Myth: “A union would hurt my relationship with my advisor.”
Reality: Published research suggests that unionization has no negative effect on faculty-student relations. It’s the union’s job to support students when advisor-student relationships go bad, not to interfere while they’re good.
Myth: “If the union forces the university to increase stipends, Cornell will have to make cuts elsewhere that could hurt me.”
Reality: When Cornell raised graduate worker stipends 8% in 2023, it reduced the price of grad tuition for faculty who support doctoral students on external grants in order to offset the increased stipend cost and ensure that the funds available for research remained untouched. Remember, Cornell keeps a share of the money brought in through sponsored research to pay for grad worker “tuition,” even for workers who are not taking classes. It’s up to Cornell to decide the price of tuition. To ensure that faculty and lab funding aren’t decreased, Cornell pledged the following: “Ph.D. tuition ($29,500) will decrease to the contract college rate ($20,800) by FY2025 in a stepwise fashion, beginning with a decrease to $24,800 in FY2024.” (See: https://gradschool.cornell.edu/2023-2024-stipend-increase-frequently-asked-questions). Cornell can ensure that stipend increases do not impact advisors’ research funds.
We are grateful to the Princeton Graduate Student Union, and the information from their website, for many of the questions and issues they raise.