Strike FAQ for Cornell Faculty

CGSU-UE remains committed to a spirit of collaboration at the bargaining table and to settling a contract that meets industry standards and graduate workers’ needs quickly. We are growing increasingly concerned that Cornell is unnecessarily creating a crisis on campus by presenting us with unenforceable, unlawful contract language, rather than rising to the occasion to bring our research and teaching conditions up to the standards of our peer Ivy+ institutions. 

For answers to other questions, see our Strike FAQ, which predominantly addresses graduate workers’ concerns.

Table of Contents

Who/What is CGSU-UE?

What is a strike? What does it entail?

What are CGSU-UE’s proposals?

What is Union Shop?

What is Just Cause?

What are the economic proposals?

How do Cornell’s proposals fall short?

What about funding cuts and austerity measures?

Will my graduate students go on strike?

How will faculty cover increased graduate worker stipends with the same research grant?

Will the union affect academic decisions?

Will the union affect how I advise students? What about academic freedom?

What can I say and not say during the negotiation process?

Would a strike affect my lab’s research output?

What about my students’ academic progress?

What should I do if my TA strikes and I can’t run my class?

I must maintain the continuity of my courses, but I do not want to scab. What should I do?

How can I support CGSU-UE?

How can I receive updates about the union?

We are Cornell Graduate Students United (CGSU-UE) at Cornell University. We represent all 3000+ graduate workers who provide research and/or instructional services to the university. We are affiliated with the national United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America (UE) and are UE Local 300. We won our union election by a 96% supermajority in November 2023, and we are currently bargaining our first contract with Cornell. 

Our leadership, organization, and actions are coordinated from the bottom up by Cornell graduate students; as a rank-and-file union, our highest authority is a vote of our membership. Since March 2024, an elected group of graduate workers have been negotiating with the Cornell administration in order to secure our first collective bargaining agreement (that is, our first contract). Our bargaining unit covers PhD students and Master’s/JD students during the semesters they hold an TA, RA, GA, or GRA position. The union's position is that Fellows do research and instructional work that benefits the university, and are therefore graduate workers who should participate in union decision-making as members.

At Cornell, we research, we teach, we collect data, we steer committees, we volunteer, we supervise, we learn. Cornell works because we do.

During a strike, graduate workers will stop 100% of their work for Cornell, including all research and teaching duties, because all of the work that we do contributes to Cornell’s wealth and material income. A strike is our last resort to win a first union contract that meets the needs of Cornell graduate workers. 

Cornell’s continued lack of movement on key issues at the bargaining table has led to an imminent teaching and research strike, but there is a way out. 

We encourage faculty to urge the Cornell administration to do the sensible thing and prevent a strike by reaching a fair contract with CGSU-UE that includes an enforceable and lawful Union or Agency Shop, enforceable Just Cause standards, and fair wages as quickly as possible.

The full text of all proposals and counter proposals can be found on the CGSU-UE Bargaining Tracker. To this date, CGSU-UE and Cornell have come to a tentative agreement on 22 contract articles. CGSU-UE’s proposals include an industry-standard union shop provision, enforceable just cause protections, and fair wages.

Union shop is the foundation of our union’s strength and longevity. Winning a contract is just the first step for ensuring all graduate workers have proper protections and benefits—our ability to support our workers and enforce our protections and benefits relies on all graduate workers being an equal member of our union. With union shop, all graduate workers will receive the protections and benefits we win in our contract; our union is strongest, and membership safest, when all those covered by the contract pay their fair share and participate in our democratic process to determine our shared future. Union shop includes two important pieces:

1. Union shop allows for universal membership, meaning that all grad workers can become members. When we settle our union contract, it will dictate the terms and conditions of work for all graduate workers in the bargaining unit (TAs, RAs, GAs, and GRAs). Individual workers cannot opt out of our contract. However, only union members have the right to participate in the democratic decision-making of the union. Union Shop or universal membership is a contract provision rooted in the shared-governance model that ensures that every graduate worker whose working conditions are determined by our contract has a democratic voice in union decision-making and equal power to vote for our shared future.

   Further, by providing a pathway to universal membership, union shop creates a lasting union structure and stable membership. This gives us the security and longevity to enforce our contract and fight for a stronger second contract.

2. Union shop ensures that every grad worker pays their fair share to the union as a condition of employment – in the form of membership dues (for union members) or in equivalent Agency fees set by the Union (for nonmembers) . This is practical because we need leverage, resources, and organized support to enforce our contract. Since every grad worker, regardless of member status, benefits from a strong union contract, it is only fair that every grad worker pays their fair share toward the enforcement of the contract. Everyone contributes, and everyone benefits.

Our Union Shop proposal is standard and practical. All other unions at Cornell have union shop.  Union shop is also standard for grad shops at private universities (MIT, Northwestern, UChicago, Stanford, JHU, USC, etc). Union shops have stronger contracts, higher wages, and better workplace protections.

Ultimately, union shop ensures the strength and longevity of our union by allowing for universal membership and ensuring that every grad worker pays their fair share into our contract.

Just cause enshrines fair, equitable, and practical standards for discipline (under University policies and procedures) that affect a graduate worker's appointment. Just cause will ensure that the administrative burden of ensuring fair treatment and discipline for grads across campus no longer falls on faculty who are already overworked. Instead, it will be ensured by common sense institutional protections, like fair notice, due process, progressive discipline. 

Note: CGSU-UE and Cornell have reached a tentative agreement on a separate process for matters related to academic evaluations and standing, which is not subject to just cause. This is addressed under “Will the union affect academic decisions?”

We are calling on Cornell to meet the demands of our economic proposals through a fair, living wage that actually allows us to afford living in Ithaca, Geneva & New York City. If Cornell values the immense labor and contributions that grad workers provide, they should support economic benefits that give us dignity in our livelihoods. Pursuing research and teaching Cornell needs to be affordable for all graduate workers, regardless of citizenship status, class background, medical needs, or research discipline. Graduate workers are the future of academia; barriers to diversity at the graduate level only serve to thwart diversity in the academy and bar top talent from entering the field.

We are growing increasingly concerned that Cornell is unnecessarily creating a crisis on campus by presenting us with unenforceable, unlawful contract language, rather than rising to the occasion to bring our research and teaching conditions up to the standards of our peer institutions. Simply put, Cornell is mishandling bargaining.

Union Security

Cornell administration presented us with an unenforceable and unlawful union security proposal. Specifically: 

• Per the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), the only way to require employees to pay their fair share is by making it a condition of employment (see Section 7 and Section 8(a)(3) of the NLRA).

• Cornell’s current proposal requires anyone who doesn’t pay their fair share to pay the equivalent amount into a charity without their consent. Making people pay into a charity is not the same as a condition of employment. 

• Cornell’s proposal does not make paying one’s fair share a condition of employment, making it both unenforceable and unlawful.

As recently as May 2024, Cornell agreed to give the Weill Cornell Medicine Posdoc’s Union an enforceable and lawful union security clause. The language Cornell agreed to is almost identical to our most recent union security proposal. Union contracts at our peer institutions across the country, including Johns Hopkins University, Northwestern, and the University of Chicago all have enforceable union security clauses. 

We will not accept a union security proposal that is unenforceable and unlawful. By continuing to insist on unenforceable and unlawful proposals, the Cornell administration is choosing to manufacture a crisis on campus at the time when all of higher education is under attack.

Just Cause

Cornell’s current proposal lacks enforceable standards for fair and equitable discipline under university policies and procedures that affect our appointments. This means that graduate workers may be unilaterally fired from their appointments for matters that do not result solely and directly from appointment performance. For example, in the past year graduate workers were called into disciplinary meetings and threatened with termination without due process simply because their cell phones pinged near a protest they did not participate in. University policies and procedures allow this sort of unjust discipline that could have terminated their student status or revoked their ability to complete their appointment duties. 

Over the past year, the Cornell administration has demonstrated a willingness to unilaterally implement or revise policies to surveil, discipline, and effectively deport graduate workers without investigation or due process. Given this track record and the administration’s cowardly response to recent executive orders that explicitly target trans workers, international and undocumented workers, and other vulnerable groups, we do not trust that the Cornell Board of Trustees possesses the moral clarity and competency to protect graduate workers and weather the ongoing storm with its core values intact.

Fair Wages

We are striving to secure wages that keep Cornell competitive with its peer institutions and that keep up with rising costs of rent, groceries, and other expenses in Ithaca and New York City (for Cornell Tech). Graduate workers should be able to focus on research without having to worry about making rent or buying groceries.  

Cornell has explicitly (and repeatedly) told us across the table that they have enough money for their “priorities”, but they will not give a living wage based stipend to us because we are not their priority. It is disappointing that Cornell’s first response to uncertainty in federal funding was introducing a hiring freeze, pausing grad admissions, and imposing austerity measures on departments. Meanwhile, we have seen the administration continuing to use its $14 billion financial assets to fund extensive construction projects across campus. 

We know that Cornell is making a choice not to prioritize its research and teaching because we’ve seen other institutions prioritize their graduate workers in the face of federal funding cuts. Yale has decided to invest $4 million in graduate funding support. We know Cornell has the financial resources to invest in graduate workers, and we are asking Cornell’s administration to fulfill Cornell’s educational mission by committing to funding the research and teaching that makes the university work.

Our goal is to position graduate workers for success – to support them in producing the high quality research the university relies on for its prestige and daily operations. On March 11, Cornell proposed $46,823 ($58,061 at Cornell Tech) as an annual stipend. This sum does not meet the needs of our members. Given Cornell’s considerable financial resources, including their $10.7 billion endowment, and the $1.7 in unrestricted funds, Cornell must embrace its responsibility as a leader in research and education by committing to pay graduate workers a fair wage. We have countered Cornell’s proposal with $53,000 ($65,719 at Cornell Tech) -- a living wage that would make Cornell competitive with its Ivy+ peers and meet the diverse needs of graduate workers. Other graduate worker unions at MIT, Johns Hopkins, and Northwestern, won similar raises in their first contract, and these universities have continued to function. 

Many of our members have been repeatedly priced out of their apartments, including Cornell-owned apartments. Inflation, rising rent, and increasing healthcare costs mean that many graduate workers are struggling to afford groceries, and save money for emergencies or even moving from Ithaca after graduation. 

As we face the current federal attacks together, it is vital to remember that there is no correlation between unionization status and impact from federal cuts. We are facing this new challenge together, and have asked Cornell’s administration to stand up for graduate workers, science, and higher education with us. 

Any of your graduate students who provide research or instructional services to Cornell, including but not limited to GAs, RAs, GRAs, TAs, and Fellows, may go on strike if called.

A strike is a last resort.

We don’t want to strike. Our union will strike only if:

1. Cornell’s administration refuses to bargain and work constructively with our union to reach a contract, and

2. Graduate workers vote to strike in a strike authorization vote.

On March 13th, we launched a strike pledge, which gathered over 1000 signatures in under 48 hours. This is not equivalent to a vote in a strike authorization vote, but it is a pledge to participate in and support a strike if necessary. We will bargain with the Cornell administration on March 18th, 19, and 25th. We will have a membership-wide vote on whether to accept Cornell’s latest proposal or authorize a strike on April 8-10th, 2025.

Cornell still has time to settle a fair contract before we go on strike. 

Should a strike occur, graduate workers will make their own decisions about how they participate (or not).

We have proposed solutions to Cornell to reduce faculty burden to cover increased graduate worker stipends, such as reducing administrative overhead, reducing tuition as in the past, eliminating tuition altogether as Princeton University did for all PhD students, or utilizing other unrestricted funds and cash reserves. Cornell has explicitly told us at the bargaining table that they have enough money for their “priorities” – but that a stipend that meets the high cost of living for graduate workers is not a priority.

With multiple potential solutions, it is ultimately the responsibility of the Cornell administration to determine how it will meet the needs of its graduate workers. 

CGSU-UE does not have any say in the content of academic decisions or evaluations. We are concerned only with ensuring safe, fair, and equitable academic processes, as they relate to graduate workers’ employment and working conditions. 

For example, we have reached a tentative agreement with Cornell on our Appointment Security article, which specifies procedures for notifying a graduate worker of failure to make satisfactory academic progress before placing them in bad academic standing. However, these procedures have no bearing on the content of academic evaluations, decisions regarding degree milestone exams, required coursework or grades, etc. 

Faculty will maintain the right to decide who is admitted, set academic standards and degree requirements, and final results of exams and Student Progress Reports; our contract does not have any direct impact on a graduate workers’ status as a student at the University.

Cornell has agreed to certain contract language around the advisor-graduate worker relationship that may require adjustments to extant advising styles. For example, appointment letters should outline the duties and expectations of the job prior to the beginning of work. The Appointment Security article also specifies procedures for notifying a graduate worker of failure to make satisfactory academic progress, as detailed above. Further guidance on the requirements placed on advisors will be forthcoming from the University once the contract is in place.

Existing successful professional relationships between faculty, students, and graduate workers at Cornell will not be negatively affected by graduate workers in more precarious situations getting the support they need. Research has shown that unionization in higher education does not harm advising relationships between faculty and students or interfere with academic freedom. In fact, students at unionized workplaces often report better relationships with their faculty advisors.

Faculty are restricted by the National Labor Relations Act from activity or speech that suppresses labor organization. If a graduate worker brings up the strike in a meeting, do not express negative judgment on the workers’ choice to strike or not strike.

However, you may, for instance, express that you support your worker regardless of their decision. Some workers will want to discuss their strike plans with their advisors, because they want their advisors to be aware of their plan. We encourage advisors to listen to workers, and offer support by expressing that their relationship with the worker will not change regardless of the workers’ decision to strike. Ultimately workers do not want to strike, and a strike is not an attack on an individual advisor. A strike is a last resort tool against Cornell so that workers’ have better working conditions. 

In the event of a strike, yes, all graduate workers in your lab may stop research duties. Our goal is not to stop research progress, but to let the absence of our labor be felt by Cornell’s administration. 

We encourage concerned faculty to speak with department, college or other University leadership to urge the administration to settle a fair contract as quickly as possible.

Our strike is not directed at faculty, at students, or at our academic relationships. As our strike threat grows, the Cornell administration will try to contort the role of faculty at Cornell, in order to discourage graduate workers from striking. The Cornell administration will likely pressure faculty to discipline and surveil their students. For example, the Cornell administration recently issued guidance to faculty on “Distinguishing Between Academic Progress and Assistantship Duties for GRAs, GAs, and RAs During a Work Stoppage.” 

It is important for faculty to understand that this guidance may seem well intentioned, but it is meant to weaken the impact of a potential strike by undermining graduate workers’ ability to participate in union activity. This is union-busting, which will threaten the academic integrity of mentor-mentee relationships. 

We believe that the best way for faculty to navigate these challenges is to commit to a neutral stance. That is, to continue to be academics and mentors, and not become managers who seek to crack down on graduate workers’ rights to participate in their union. 

Specifically, a neutral stance means that faculty will:

1. Allow graduate workers to decide for themselves whether to strike without concerns about their academic progress or their relationship with their faculty mentors. 

2. Avoid, even if unintentional, the appearance of coercion or retaliation during the escalation towards a strike.

3. Disregard graduate workers' membership or participation in the union with regard to evaluation of graduate research or teaching work, advising, academic standing, or letters of recommendation. 

4. Not take on graduate workers’ labor of research, instruction, office hours, committee work, or grading, nor recruit replacements for this struck labor (scab).

The most effective way to ensure that research is not interrupted is to urge the Cornell administration to fairly bargain with CGSU-UE on our proposals. 

It’s unavoidable that a strike would disrupt the day-to-day operations of the University. By refusing to engage meaningfully on key issues, Cornell has created a manufactured crisis on campus that may demand escalation via work stoppage. Strikes are, by definition, disruptive. Canceled sections and delayed grading will be one of the ways our membership makes sure our demands are felt by Cornell. Withholding our labor demonstrates its importance to University operations and underlines our demand for adequate compensation. 

We acknowledge that faculty feel a responsibility to their students in their classes, and graduate workers who TA also feel this responsibility. However, withholding our labor via a full research and teaching strike is the only real leverage graduate workers have to reach a fair contract. 

At the end of a strike, work will resume immediately. 

Cornell may suggest the use of non-union labor (colloquially, “scabs”) to maintain instructional continuity during a strike. Or, you yourself might feel like you can take on the extra grading to support undergraduate students. But it is important to understand that each of these cases effectively amounts to “scabbing” because it undermines the impact and efficacy of CGSU-UE’s push for fair working conditions. 

The most effective way to ensure that courses are not interrupted is to urge the Cornell administration to fairly bargain with CGSU-UE on our proposals. 

We understand that many faculty, especially untenured faculty, face significant pressure from Cornell administrators to scab in the event of a strike. These pressures may come in the form of requests that you attest to your ability to complete all struck work, or other vaguely-worded instructions. Nevertheless, the use of scab labor is in direct opposition to the principles of organized labor and undermines graduate workers’ ability to push for fair working conditions.  

Faculty should continue to fulfill their regular teaching duties, but resist pressures to complete struck work. Faculty should also request specific, written guidance on the potential consequences of refusing to scab. 

We encourage faculty to urge the Cornell administration to avert a strike by reaching a fair contract with CGSU-UE that includes an enforceable and lawful Union or Agency Shop, enforceable Just Cause standards, and fair wages as quickly as possible. 

Additional steps that you can take to support CGSU-UE as we fight for fair working conditions:

1. Please sign this faculty neutrality pledge! 

2. Share the faculty neutrality pledge with your colleagues and/or get your department to onto sign it!.

We maintain lists of bargaining updates (posted after every session!) on our website

1. You can also follow us on X/Twitter and Instagram

2. Questions are always welcome! Please email bc@cornellgradunion.org

For answers to other questions, see our Strike FAQ, which predominantly addresses graduate workers’ concerns.