CGSU-UE Bargaining Committee Statement:
Stand United for Union Shop

We are fighting for universal membership via Union Shop in our contract so that we can shift the power balance from the Cornell administration to Graduate Workers. Union Shop is a contract mechanism that ensures that every Graduate Worker whose working conditions are determined by our union contract will have a democratic voice in union decision-making. All Graduate Workers will receive the protections and benefits we win in our contract; when every worker is a union member, every worker has equal power to vote for our shared future and will contribute their fair share to our collective benefits.

We voted to unionize with a 96% supermajority because we understand that together in our union we can collectively fight for the protections and benefits we deserve and empower ourselves to pursue our ambitions of scholarly excellence. In order to do our work well, we need protection against mistreatment and benefits that meet our needs. We are making critical progress towards a strong union contract to realize this dream. We also know that it is crucial for us to continue to have a strong union in the future to ensure that the protections we secure are enforced after our contract is completed.

During months of bargaining we have secured vital protections including Academic Due Process, Academic Freedom, Health & Safety, and Nondiscrimination. These wins will change the lives of Graduate Workers across campus so long as our union is strong enough to hold the administration accountable to respect the articles they agreed to! This is the future we voted for when we voted for our union. Being in our union means standing shoulder to shoulder with our coworkers to defend these wins together. To protect ourselves and our future members, we must stand united with a Union Shop clause in our Union Security article. 

Union Shop is common and practical. Every strong union has universal membership via a version of Union Shop. Graduate Worker unions across the country, including MIT, Stanford, Yale, Brown, Dartmouth, Johns Hopkins, University of Chicago, and Northwestern, have claimed their union power with similar articles. All other union contracts at Cornell have Union Shop clauses (UAW 2300, Teamsters 317, BTC Maintenance Division, CWA, CPU, IUOE 158S, and SPFPA 502o). Additionally, as recently as May 2024, the administration signed a tentative agreement that establishes a variation of Union Shop for the Weill Cornell Medicine Postdocs Union. The administration’s position on Union Security for Graduate Workers at Cornell falls well short of the current industry standard and is out of place at an institution where all other unions have a Union Shop clause. 

We are uniting as academic workers in a strong union that represents all Graduate Workers to foster a greater, more inclusive future for academia. Union shop is the way to enforce our contract. Union shop is the path to receiving all of our hard-won benefits.  

⚡CGSU-UE Bargaining Committee⚡