ANTI-UNION MYTHS FAQs

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: Unionization will not cost you a penny. 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: “Being in a union means I have to go on strikes”

Reality: This is utterly false. We all have a right, protected by federal labor law, to work if we want to. Opponents of unionization don’t want us to know this because they want to scare us by making us believe that a union can force us to go on strike. Furthermore, strikes are exceedingly rare; 98% percent of contracts are negotiated without the need for striking. No one at Cornell wants a strike, so it’s very unlikely that would ever happen.

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: “Unions only help union workers.”

Reality: It’s true that unions prioritize the issues brought up by union members, but the benefits of union negotiations benefit all workers regardless of union affiliation. We as graduate workers will not vote to ratify a contract that does not benefit us.

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.