TL;DR:

⚖️Cornell continues to move in Nondiscrimination 

🦅Major movement in Academic Freedom!

🔐Our fight for Union Shop continues 

☃️❄️Have a wonderful winter break! ✨🍻

Today we continued to make progress on two of our top issues: Nondiscrimination and Academic Freedom. Our major goal for Nondiscrimination is to ensure that the full power of the contract protects workers in cases of harassment. We want timely and effective resolutions to any breach of our Nondiscrimination article by processing discrimination cases through our established Grievance Procedure. Grievances can escalate to a third party arbitration procedure, which is a powerful tool to holding Cornell accountable. Our members deserve protections with real teeth, especially given the severity of discrimination that we know exists at Cornell. 

Cornell finally made substantial movement on our Academic Freedom article! This article protects our freedom of expression, including participating in peaceful protests and developing our research and teaching materials. We look forward to keeping up this momentum in the New Year.

In contrast to the above progress, Cornell has still not moved off of their horrendous Union Security counter proposal that denies us union shop. This is not only below industry standard, but also below Cornell campus standard as every other union on campus has union shop. 

In fact, Cornell’s use of this anti-union tactic was considered beyond the pale 40 years ago when they originally denied union shop to UAW 2300. UAW 2300 did not accept this and neither will we – especially when, earlier this year, the Weill Cornell Medicine Postdocs Union won a form of union shop. In order to retain benefits such as international grad protections, raises, appointment security, and health and safety provisions, we need union shop. ✊⚡

We’re excited to ring in the New Year by winning more historic protections with you! May we all have the rest and restoration that we need after a long semester. 

Our fight continues! 🫵We want you to be involved with CGSU-UE! Fill out our membership involvement form to join the contract fight next semester! 💪🗣️📣

TL;DR:

💰Economic Platform ratification passed!

🔐We TA’d Appointment Security and it’s awesome!

💀Cornell supports “Right To Work”…

Dear CGSU-UE Members,

We had a major win today with our Tentative Agreement on Appointment Security! This crucial article guarantees funding for all fall, spring, and summer appointment periods for the duration of your degree. We also won transitional funding for workers who are changing advisors, or when appointments are canceled or interrupted, as well as protections for international grads who are unable to enter the U.S.

WE ARE THRILLED TO ANNOUNCE THAT WE ARE THE FIRST GRAD UNION TO WIN 🎉ACADEMIC DUE PROCESS!🎉

This means that no grad can be put into bad academic standing without clear feedback, an opportunity to improve their academic performance, and a fair evaluation. We are setting the bar for all future grad unions and protecting generations of Cornell grads to come!

Additionally, our Economics Platform ratification vote passed! This platform outlines our key issues, including a raise to $58,500, free TCAT, improved parking, financial support for international workers, and 100% coverage of dental and vision insurance. We know that we critically need these benefits, and we will fight for them at the bargaining table. Thank you for your feedback!  

Unfortunately, Cornell gave us disgraceful counterproposals on Union Security, Management Rights, and Strikes & Lockouts. In Management Rights and Strikes & Lockouts, Cornell made no movement and is aiming to maintain unilateral power. In the Union Security article, Cornell proposed open shop, which would be detrimental to our union strength.

We will fight for a union shop to protect our union power! 

For background, “union shop” means universal full membership of the whole bargaining unit. It is the only set up in which every bargaining unit member can vote on the decisions and contracts that affect every worker. All members vote, and all members pay dues. (Remember, members vote on the contract, and none of us will vote “yes” on a contract where our raises don’t outweigh the dues.) Most grad unions have some form of union shop, including MIT, Yale, Northwestern, U Chicago, Johns Hopkins, Stanford, and Dartmouth. The other Cornell unions, including the Weill Cornell Postdocs Union, have won some form of union shop. We made it to grad school, we’re not dumb and we’re not accepting below industry standard. 

Despite this, Cornell proposed an “open shop.” Open shop means that it is entirely optional to be a union member, but the bargaining unit is still beholden to the union’s legally binding contract. For example, a bargaining unit of 3,000 workers could have only 100 card-signed members, and those 100 members decide and enforce the contract for all 3,000 workers. 😬

For context, open shop was invented to enshrine segregation and it has perpetuated economic and civil inequality for decades. Entire states require open shop via “Right To Work” laws. These right-wing laws hurt workers and aim to strip away civil rights, as outlined in their legal support webpages that pit “Joe Believer” against the homosexual agenda (we’re not kidding). New York is not a Right to Work state (🗽), meaning that Cornell is choosing to enshrine regressive policy in our contract. 

Suffice to say, we will not be accepting open shop. Our fight continues! 🫵We want you to be involved with CGSU-UE! Fill out our membership involvement form to join the contract fight! 💪🗣️📣

TL;DR:

💰Economic Platform ratification starts today! The ratification vote is open from 11/21 to 11/30. Vote here to ratify our Economic Platform!

🌱Grads from School of Integrative Plant Sciences (SIPS) joined us to speak on the importance of just cause and due process

⚡Cornell finally made (some) movement on Nondiscrimination

Dear CGSU-UE Members,

Today, grads from SIPS joined us in an open bargaining session, Cornell made moves on Nondiscrimination, and we are opening up the Economic Platform for ratification! We also presented 1 counterproposal and Cornell presented 2 counterproposals.

Grad workers from SIPS and affiliated STEM departments joined us in the bargaining room to speak about the impact of Sriram Parasurama’s suspension on their community. They spoke of their love for Parasurama, their need for just cause, and their fear for the politicized future of their esteemed program.

A fourth-year Plant Biology grad put it beautifully: “We are here to make meaningful contributions to science, society, and our communities. When the university disregards its own code of conduct and removes a student from their academic environment without due process, it undermines our ability to trust that we will be treated with respect and fairness.”

Parasurama, after being denied the right to be present at a union proceeding, joined over Zoom to say “[Because] I do not believe an institution of higher learning and celebrating life should be funding the instruments of death and war, I am being punished without due process under the guise of my nature as a ‘danger to public health and safety.’” Parasurama would have been protected against this treatment if Cornell had adhered to just cause standards.

In response, Cornell patronizingly said that “actions have consequences,” demonstrating that they fundamentally miss the point of just cause: we need due process for ALL, even those you think are guilty. If we stray from this principle, we perpetuate injustice, especially against marginalized people. We all know that we deserve better.  

After this show of deep love and solidarity, Cornell moved on Nondiscrimination for the first time since July! However, this movement isn’t enough, and we will continue to bargain for strong, grievable nondiscrimination protections that our members need.

And finally: Economic Platform ratification starts today! We have collected your feedback and incorporated it into the finalized Economic Platform. The economic proposals are provisions in our contract to secure the compensation and benefits that we as grads deserve, including our pay, insurance, time off, caregiving support, commute subsidies, and international grad support. The platform lays out our collective priorities for the economic negotiations.

Cornell’s movement at the table is because of your actions – voting to ratify our economic platform sends Cornell a clear message that we need wage increases, improvements to our medical benefits, 100% subsidized TCAT passes, improved parking access,and economic benefits now, and we’re ready to fight for them. Please vote on our Economic Platform between today and November 30th. 

Vote here to ratify our Economic Platform!

TL;DR:

⚡We reached tentative agreements on 3 articles! See our tracker for all articles.

⚡We’re fully focused on our major issues: discipline & discharge, nondiscrimination, academic freedom, and union shop

⚡We concluded effects bargaining for Momodou Taal – his future funding is no longer in jeopardy!

⚡The voices of School of Integrative Plant Science (SIPS) and sibling departments will be heard at tomorrow’s bargaining session on behalf of Sriram Parasurama’s on-going disciplinary case

Dear CGSU-UE Members,

Today was the first day of our two back-to-back bargaining sessions. We made great progress and reached a tentative agreement (TA) on 3 articles: Union Rights, Professional Rights, and Recognition. We also presented 4 counterproposals and Cornell presented 4 counterproposals.

The Union Rights article outlines how we’re allowed to interact with university infrastructure like meeting spaces, flyering, and bulletin boards. It also includes a funding transparency section, which obliges the university to give the union a list of funding sources for all bargaining unit positions. Further, we can request the identity of any funding source that supports our research. The Professional Rights article provides us with important protections for remote work and intellectual property and enshrines our right to accessible workspaces, tools and supplies, and regular regular professional feedback from our direct supervisors. The Recognition article defines our bargaining unit. It also determines a very small part of our contract by securing our title as Graduate Student Workers instead of Bargaining Unit Members (BUMs 🍑)! 

The remaining language articles on the table are our big issues: discipline and discharge, nondiscrimination, academic freedom, and union shop. We spent the afternoon discussing discipline and discharge, during which Cornell maintained that just cause is only needed in some cases. Again, just cause enshrines seven standards for fair discipline. It includes things like prior enforcement, due process, and substantial evidence. These are not radical ideas. When we asked Cornell how their multiple avenues of discipline would actually work without expressly contradicting themselves, they got tied into knots. We will continue these critical discussions at our bargaining session tomorrow.   

We also have an update on effects bargaining over Momodou Taal’s and Sriram Parasurama’s discipline. We concluded the effects bargaining for Momodou Taal, his future funding is not in jeopardy and he will be able to continue his degree progress! However, Cornell’s racist characterization of Taal as “violent” was reflected in their unwillingness to move on reasonable requests. They refused to give Taal access to campus spaces for religious practice and he is not allowed any unscheduled time on campus. 

Similarly, Cornell presented a degrading counter for Parasurama’s case. They have denied Parasurama his pay and benefits throughout the duration of the disciplinary investigation. They specifically claimed that this case is different from Taal’s and uses a different process. This is against just cause principles. It’s completely unacceptable to revoke someone’s pay and benefits when the investigation is still ongoing. Cornell has moved slightly on trying to minimize the effect on Parasurama’s research and degree progress, but Parasurama deserves better.

Tomorrow morning, the School of Integrative Plant Science (SIPS) and associated departments are coming to the bargaining room to voice their anger. The voices of our members will be heard. We cannot wait to send another update tomorrow!

TL;DR:

🎃October General Membership Meeting tomorrow (Oct 30, at 5pm, RSVP HERE) 

🍬We reached a tentative agreement on the Inclusive Work Environment article

👻Cornell gave an unserious Discipline and Discharge “article”

Dear CGSU-UE Members,

Today, we proposed 8 articles and Cornell proposed 5 articles. It was a productive session in terms of substantive bargaining. We reached a tentative agreement on the Inclusive Work Environment article, which enshrines our right to a non-hostile work environment, and requires Cornell to provide a number of provisions related to gender, restroom, lactation, and religious equity. In particular: reasonable accommodations for religious practice, access to single-user restrooms in close proximity to a grad’s workplace, safe storage of breast milk, and timely changes to University records of names, pronouns, and photos. We’re continuing to make progress on our Appointment Security article, and we currently only have one section that is still pending. We are also making good progress on Professional Rights. 

Despite this promising progress, we still remain extremely far from Cornell on several key issues. Rather than offering a serious counterproposal on Discipline and Discharge, Cornell sent us a table outlining topics that they believe are not within the purview of our discipline and discharge article, and thus are not subject to just cause. In plain text, Cornell showed their intention to maintain unilateral control over our academic careers.  Cornell seems to think that their judgment is beyond check, which is really interesting given Cornell’s recent positions on anti-Semitic slurs and the KKK. 

To be clear, Just Cause standards are not some radical idea. They are the gold standard of ensuring fair and equitable treatment in the workplace. It is extreme of Cornell to continuously oppose these fair and equitable standards. 

In the same spirit as the carve-outs in Discipline and Discharge, Cornell is dragging their feet on articles that address our strength to protect academic workers. Academic freedom, Nondiscrimination, and Union Security have not been returned to us, despite several requests. 

We know that our strength as a union comes from our members! Our monthly GMM is an important forum to provide your thoughts and feedback on our current fight. Join us for our October GMM (TOMORROW, Oct 30 at 5pm, RSVP HERE) to get the latest details about the grad worker suspensions, learn more about just cause, and find out how to get involved in our fight.  

TL;DR:

• THANK YOU to our 100+ members who showed up to our open bargaining session today! We held Cornell’s feet to the fire and made them MOVE! 👟

• Momodou Taal will not have his visa revoked, and Cornell agreed to bargain with us over the effects of his discipline, per our MOA. This is people power in action! 🎉

• We are continuing to make industry-setting progress on Appointment Security, which enshrines protections against unfair academic evaluation processes. 📥

• The fight continues! Cornell has yet to move on Discipline and Discharge, Nondiscrimination, and Academic Freedom. We need YOU to keep Cornell moving! ✊

Dear CGSU-UE Membership,

We are so excited to give you updates about today! This morning, over 100 members of CGSU-UE and representatives from 15 grad shops across the country came together in an open bargaining session. The room was absolutely packed and the energy was electric. We demanded that Cornell reverse Momodou Taal’s suspension, enshrine just cause standards in our contract, and bargain with CGSU-UE (as obliged by our Memorandum of Agreement (MOA)) over the effects of unilateral suspensions issued to Momodou Taal and Finn West, two graduate workers at Cornell. 

During our open bargaining session, Momodou Taal perfectly summarized the unilateral power the university holds over him in his current situation: “These arbitrary suspensions, which are without just cause and follow no due process, disproportionately affect international graduate workers like me whose visa status is in jeopardy. At a moment’s notice, the administration could choose to de-enroll me, rescind my F-1 visa, and effectively deport me.” 

Finn West called Cornell out on their cowardly position of refusing to bargain with CGSU-UE over the effects of these suspensions: “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. You need to protect the University’s unilateral power over our working conditions.”

After that powerful opening to our bargaining session, we counter-proposed two articles and Cornell counter-proposed four articles. Check out our bargaining tracker to learn more! 

At 3 PM, we received an update about Taal’s disciplinary status. We are ecstatic to share that Taal will not have his visa revoked, meaning that there is no longer a threat of Taal getting deported! THIS IS A VICTORY FOR ALL OF US! Our membership’s outrage, our mounting of national pressure through the media, and our solidarity with our comrades on campus and siblings from other grad unions moved Cornell! The foundational win of unions in any industry is protecting workers from being fired, and we collectively achieved that today! 

Although this is a major victory, Taal is still prohibited from returning to campus and teaching his First-Year Writing Seminar. However, Cornell finally agreed to bargain over the effects of Taal’s discipline per our MOA! Cornell committed to scheduling a special bargaining session by the end of the week. We originally sent them a demand to bargain over Taal’s discipline on September 23rd, and they rejected this request until today. This movement was due to pressure from our membership. When we fight, we win!

Although we haven’t yet reached a tentative agreement on Appointment Security, we are continuing to make industry-setting progress. We are on track to become the first graduate workers’ union to get due process for academic evaluations! 

Despite all this movement at the table, our fight is far from over. Cornell did not move on our Discipline and Discharge, Nondiscrimination, or Academic Freedom articles. For Discipline and Discharge, we insist that Cornell cannot use the Student Code of Conduct to target and discipline our workers. We will not move from our position of demanding just cause protections. We are committed to fighting for our members’ needs, and we couldn’t be happier that we’re fighting with such trailblazing wins behind us and such brave workers beside us. 

We are on track to win a historic contract with industry-setting standards, and we need everyone to be a part of our fight! Join us at our next General Membership Meeting (GMM) on October 30, 2024 (5pm, Hybrid)! This GMM is going to be more conversational, so come by to share your thoughts about our current fight and connect with grads across campus! If you signed a union card, you are welcome at this GMM!

TL;DR:

⚡September General Membership Meeting is TOMORROW, September 20th at 4 PM

⚡Our Rally for Workplace Justice is October 2nd at 12 PM outside Bailey Hall!

⚡Today’s bargaining session included powerful testimonials and important counters on Appointment Security; Discipline & Discharge, Union Rights, and Inclusive Work Environment

Dear CGSU-UE Members, 

Before we cover today’s bargaining session, we want to remind everyone about our next steps in our contract fight:

⚡Our September General Membership Meeting is tomorrow, September 20th at 4 PM. The meeting will be hybrid and we will go to TGIF at the Big Red Barn when the meeting is over! The GMM is open to all of our members, and it’s a great place to catch up on current issues and find out how to get more involved in CGSU-UE. We will also have our new CGSU-UE Merch available for sale.

⚡RSVP for General Membership Meeting⚡

⚡Our Rally for Workplace Justice is October 2nd at 12 PM outside Bailey Hall to demand just cause for Discipline and Discharge and a process for fair academic evaluation through Appointment Security. Cornell should not have the right to fire us without due process. Cornell wants to limit nondiscrimination policies to its current policy, excluding protections on the basis of caste, political affiliation, and political belief. Additionally, Cornell has not yet proposed a counter to our Union Security article! This article calls for a union shop with universal grad membership, which is essential for maintaining the strength and longevity of our union, and which we can only secure in our first contract. Join us to demand movement from Cornell on these critical issues. When we fight, we win.

⚡RSVP for the Rally for Workplace Justice⚡

Wednesday, October 2nd at 12 PM (Bailey Hall)

Today, to frame our Appointment Security counterproposal, we opened our session with a powerful testimonial from a recently fired grad worker in Engineering whose story is all too familiar. She comes from a lab where “the community makes bets on which student is going to survive,” and where her advisor told her that her personality was not a good fit for research. After conditionally passing her A Exam, she received zero written feedback about the results of her conditional writeup. When she went to her DGS for guidance, they shrugged and said, “Honestly, I’m still not sure how this process works. It’s out of my hands.” Her experience echoes that of countless Cornell grads who don’t have access to a fair, equitable evaluation process. Additionally, as a domestic student, this grad acknowledged that international grads face even more precarity during the academic evaluation process. “I can't imagine what it would be like if I was an international student," she said. These are the stories at the forefront of our minds every bargaining session. 

After the emotional opening, we presented Cornell with two counterproposals (Appointment Security and Discipline & Discharge), and Cornell gave us two counterproposals (Union Rights and Inclusive Work Environment). 

The Appointment Security article is fighting for continuity of funding for grads, and for providing transitional funding for grads whose appointment is canceled or who need to switch advisors. Although we’re still bargaining with Cornell over the scope of access to transitional funding, we did groundbreaking work to ensure that grads get fair, equitable evaluations on their academic progress. From both the testimonial we heard today and our conversations with grads on campus, we know how much this issue impacts our membership. We do not yet have a TA on this article, but given the movement at the table today, we are looking forward to Cornell's next counterproposal. We also re-proposed our Discipline & Discharge article, which would establish just cause for our appointments and Student Code of Conduct issues. 

Cornell counterproposed Union Rights and Inclusive Work Environment. The Union Rights article lays out various rights for the union, such as the right to a meeting space and time off for union trainings and conferences. The Inclusive Work Environment article first affirms that Cornell must provide an inclusive, non-hostile work environment, free from discrimination and harassment. It also addresses vital topics such as religious, gender, lactation, and restroom equity. No one should have to breastfeed in a public kitchen. No one should have to pray in a stairwell. No one should haveto walk to another building for a bathroom. We deserve better workplaces that enable all of us to do our work with dignity.

TL;DR:

• 2 Tentative Agreements - Severability and Bargaining Unit Info  🖊️

• Cornell made important movement on Transitional Funding, but we still have work to do 🔨

• WE HAVE NEW MERCH FOR SALE! 👕 👒 👜

• Big CAT Meeting on Sept. 11th 🐈

Hello CGSU-UE members! 

Today, we reached tentative agreements on two articles: Severability and Bargaining Unit Information. Severability is a standard article in all union contracts that says if the law changes while the contract is in effect, the law supersedes the contract. The Bargaining Unit Information article lays out what information about our bargaining unit Cornell provides to CGSU-UE - things like name, Net ID, and your appointment type (if you’re a TA or GRA, etc.). This is important because we want to reach all of our members. 

Cornell also returned a counterproposal on Appointment Security. This article guarantees us a period of transitional funding when finding an alternative appointment, such as when we are switching labs or dealing with advisor conflicts. While we've made substantial progress toward these protections, we will continue pushing for transitional funding that is not conditional on your committee chair's sole discretion. Appointment security is tied heavily into Discipline and Discharge, which defines how and when Cornell can punish and fire us. We need a Discipline and Discharge article that has Just Cause protections for all forms of discipline because all discipline affects our working conditions!

Ongoing Fights

We are eagerly awaiting counters on some core issues such as Academic Freedom, which is vital to protecting academic workers. With an academic freedom article, we can ensure that Cornell cannot silence our voices with policies like the Interim Expressive Activity Policy. The IEAP, a policy limiting our right to free speech that was instituted last January without bargaining with the union, is still in effect. This egregious policy has been illegally implemented and discriminatorily applied to Black, Muslim, Arab, and international grads. Such discrimination has no place in our lives nor our workplaces. We are continuing to push forward our Nondiscrimination article to protect our grads from many backgrounds, even as the Cornell policy is scheduled to be updated later this month.

Cornell’s insistence on a Nondiscriminationarticle that leaves vulnerable grads excluded from important protections is proof that we need our collective strength. There are no real protections for any of us if there aren’t protections for all of us! This is why we are pushing for universal membership enrollment, aka Union Shop, in our Union Security article. With universal membership, every grad worker’s voice is included in our union, making it orders of magnitude more powerful. This universal union membership is the bedrock of bold contract fights like the one that UAW 2300 just won!

⚡Are you interested in getting involved with CGSU? Come to our Big CAT meeting to learn how you can get involved in our contract fight!

📅 Big CAT is happening WEDNESDAY, September 11th from 5-6pm (RSVP here!).

🛍️ We will have COOL NEW MERCH for sale at this meeting!

📣 Stay tuned for upcoming actions and opportunities to make some noise with your union! 👀

TL;DR:

🎉We reached tentative agreements on the following articles:

• Workload 

• Protections for Undocumented and DACA Employees 

• Health and Safety 

• Disability Accommodations

✊We supported our fellow Cornell employees at UAW 2300’s strike picket!

Dear CGSU-UE Members, 

Today we had a deeply productive and rewarding  bargaining session, where we presented 6 counterproposals and Cornell presented 9 counterproposals. All this hard work at the table resulted in four (4) sensational tentative agreements on Workload, Protections for DACA and Undocumented Employees, Health and Safety, and Disability Accommodations. These wins have resulted in groundbreaking rights and protections for our members and we are extremely proud of them!

We started our session by reading our UAW 2300 Solidarity Statement to Cornell’s bargaining committee. We also used our lunch break to support UAW 2300’s picket outside Day Hall. We have always maintained that we stand on the shoulders of giants, and UAW 2300’s monumental strike is a testament to that. The fight of the service and maintenance workers for a fair and just Cornell is linked to our own. We stand in full solidarity with UAW 2300 in their historic strike for reasonable pay, parking allowances, and safety in the workplace! If you want to show your support to UAW 2300, stop by one of their pickets. Just follow the sound of chanting, or check their website here for more info about their strike. 

🥁 Drumroll for Tentative Agreements! 🥁

We reached tentative agreements on a record four articles today!

⚡We won an industry-leading Workload article that has a ton of provisions to protect us all from overwork, so we can focus on the cutting-edge research we came here to do. All of our  side experiments, administrative work, and service work for our supervisors is capped at a weekly average of 15 hours, and any time beyond that must be spent on tasks primarily related to our degree progress. This is a major win for all of us! It ensures that random side tasks will not stall our degree progress. We also won protections against work outside of regular working hours (9:00 AM to 5:00 PM) when that work could reasonably be done during regular work hours. For example, if you can hold office hours at 2:00 PM, your supervisor cannot require you to hold them at 8:00 PM. (Although you can if you want to–we see you, night owls!) Additionally, we have defined conferences, emails, and holding office hours as part of your workload, so now answering emails from undergrads counts towards your weekly working hours. Finally, we won a strong TA substitution policy that relieves us from having to find our own replacement if we are unable to teach. 

⚡Our Undocumented and DACA Employees article prevents Cornell from releasing information about immigration status or demanding proof of citizenship as a condition of employment. Our article also ensures that, unless required by federal law, Cornell Police does not make stops or arrests based on immigration status alone. Finally, unless required by federal law, Cornell is no longer allowed to let immigration enforcement agents into spaces where grads live or work. These provisions enshrine trailblazing protections for undocumented and DACA grads.

⚡In our Health and Safety article, we won the right to have workplace hazards resolved in a timely manner! This is essential because protecting against chronic exposure to hazards, such as carcinogens and lasers, should be treated as a priority for our members. We also enshrined the right to walk out of the room in the case of an imminent danger, rather than risk life or limb. We additionally secured non-retaliation protections for reporting unsafe environments and an extension of safety provisions for field work. 

⚡Our Disability Accommodations article cements the extension of accommodations to our appointment work, and not just our coursework. We know that our disabilities don’t disappear when we walk from the classroom into the workplace, and we are so excited for our members to have these protections. It also guarantees us an interactive process when requesting a workplace accommodation due to a temporary or chronic disability, meaning that Student Disability Services (SDS) cannot make decisions without actually talking to us. Accommodation requests must now be resolved and implemented in reasonable timeframes, so that we’re not waiting three weeks just for an initial intake email. When going through the process to get an accommodation, we are now entitled to interim support measures while waiting for a resolution. Additionally, we’ve ensured that between work appointments, there will not be gaps in the provided accommodations. 

Every article is packed with even more wins – check out the bargaining tracker or chat with an organizer for more details!

We’re looking forward to making this much progress in future sessions on other vital issues, like Appointment Security, Discipline and Discharge, Nondiscrimination, and Union Security.

TL;DR:

• We negotiated for Disability Accommodations and Health & Safety protections 📄

• By inserting its own policies into these articles, Cornell wants to circumvent our contract 👎

• Follow our bargaining progress in our Bargaining Tracker! 📈

• Come to our Big CAT meeting on September 11 at 6 PM ET. RSVP here! 🐈‍⬛

• Support our fellow union, UAW2300, on August 16 at 12PM at Bailey Hall! 🪧

Hello CGSU-UE members! 

At today’s bargaining session, we proposed four counterproposals and Cornell offered five counterproposals. The articles on the table were Disability Accommodations, Health and Safety, Workload, and Management Rights. Our Disability Accommodations article went across the table five (5) times!

👷 Holding the line on Health and Safety and Disability Accommodations

In our Health and Safety article, we are working hard to ensure our right to a healthy and safe work environment. Our members do incredible work, sometimes with dangerous materials, and we should be safe when conducting our research. We are also ensuring that our Disability Accommodations article keeps accessible workspaces within reach for those experiencing temporary and long-term disabilities. 

In our Workload article, we’re fighting to ensure that our time at Cornell goes toward fulfilling our degree requirements. We’re seeking to remove barriers to research, such as random tasks that do not benefit our degree progress and waste our time. We are also fighting to formalize substitute time for TAs (so that time you spend substituting for another TA would be counted towards your total workload) and to prevent the unnecessary scheduling of weekend and late-night meetings. 

✊ We will not condition our contract on Cornell’s policies!

Disappointingly, despite our progress at the bargaining table, Cornell wants to condition our negotiated contract on their policies, which have historically not given us necessary protections. If they have unilateral power to change policies that are built into our contract, then they could easily:

• Significantly reduce public health protections 🤒

• Change how they recognize episodic and temporary disabilities 🩼

• Remove nondiscrimination protections from various groups 🤝‍

• Institutionally wreck free speech 😶 

Current policies on Disability Accommodations and Health and Safety fall short of our needs. But rather than bargain with our union over making our campus safer and more accessible, Cornell is holding onto its right to ignore the needs of grads.

Over the last ten bargaining sessions, one thing has become clear: the university will prioritize its power over any commitment to fair, just protections for grads. Cornell wants to fire us without a transparent process by using the “academic distinction” (i.e., the idea that our roles as workers and as students can be easily separated) as an excuse. Grads deserve a fair and just performance review process (including academic performance) enshrined in our contract.Just Cause in our Discipline and Discharge article is the cornerstone of a union that can protect its workers.

We see that the road to a just Cornell leads from Just Cause. Our contract can stop Cornell from being both judge and jury. We need a strong, united union to enforce the Just Cause protections we win in our contract. This is why our Union Security article is key: through universal union membership (also known as “union shop”), we can maintain a powerful and long-lasting union to protect our members. 

📅 Mark your calendars!

On the road to a strong union, we have some exciting events happening!

• On September 11 at 6 PM, we are having an all-hands-on-deck meeting for our Contract Action Team (CAT)! We’re kicking off the semester with a big welcome meeting for all past, present, and future CGSU organizers. RSVP for Big CAT here!

• Have you seen a member of the UAW 2300 on the street or out protesting on campus lately? UAW 2300, which represents Cornell dining workers, custodians, groundskeepers, and others, is also in the middle of contract negotiations. They’re rallying for a fair contract on August 16, 11:30 AM, at Bailey Courtyard ✊Workers show up for other workers, and when we fight together, we win!
  

TL;DR:

• RSVP to our GMM on July 25th at 5PM here! 🤓

• We held our Close the Academic Loophole Rally 🔗

• We reached tentative agreements on our MOA 🎉and Scope of Work✊

• We’re still negotiating on key issues in our contract, like nondiscrimination, discipline and discharge, appointment security, academic freedom, and union security 📄

Hello CGSU-UE members! 

Today, Cornell presented 6 counterproposals and we presented 7 counterproposals. We reached a Tentative Agreement (TA) on Appointment Duties and Scope of Work and finalized our Memorandum of Agreement (MOA)! We are also making good progress on our Workload Article. Perhaps the most important part of today was our Close the Academic Loophole Rally, where our members gathered to demand better from Cornell! 

Your voices mattered today! Get involved in our contract fight at our General Membership Meeting (GMM)  on Thursday (July 25) at 5pm. RSVP here!

Our finalized Appointment Duties and Scope of Work article defines tasks that are allowable and unallowable for our appointments. It secured a few key restrictions to ensure our assigned work is actually furthering our degree-related progress. First, it prevents tasks that are personal in nature, such as running errands for your advisor. Second, it ensures that the tasks that we are assigned in our appointments do not unreasonably interfere with our ability to make academic progress. For example, appointment-related obligations such as TAing a discussion section should not interfere with taking a required class.

🔗 Close the Academic Loophole Rally

At 12 PM, grads gathered outside of our bargaining session to demand that Cornell close the academic loopholes that they keep inserting into our contract. Cornell is doing this in an attempt to maintain unilateral control over our working conditions, which we will not accept. We heard powerful speeches from our members on key issues like appointment security (including transitional funding), discipline and discharge, academic freedom, and nondiscrimination to show Cornell how their academic loopholes fail to meet the needs of grads and how we stand together in calling for more movement on these articles from Cornell.

✊Major Win on Our Memorandum of Agreement (MOA)!

We reached a tentative agreement on our MOA on Effects of University Policies and Disciplinary Decisions on Working Conditions, which goes into effect immediately! We originally proposed the MOA after several grads were suspended under the Interim Expressive Activity Policy (IEAP) in the Spring. The MOA secures our right to bargain with Cornell over the effects of Cornell’s decisions to discipline grads. This is a MAJOR win for us. It’s a significant move in our fight for protections from arbitrary discipline.

However, the MOA is only valid for the course of our contract negotiations. We need a permanent solution to ensure that Cornell no longer has unilateral power over our discipline. For this, we need a strong Discipline and Discharge article that ensures Just Cause standards are in place for all cases of discipline. This is one of the most fundamental protections we identified when we formed our union, and one of the areas where we are furthest apart. Cornell  is still refusing Just Cause for academic issues. This means Cornell wants to be able to fire people for “academic” reasons without investigation or due process. We know Cornell can and will classify any issue as “academic” and then use this classification as a way to deny us Just Cause or due process protections. We do not accept this carveout. 

📄 Still on the Table 

Today, we presented our Academic Freedom counterproposal, which will secure the right to conduct our research, teach, protest, and express ourselves, free from intimidation and retaliation. In their counterproposal, Cornell asserted that our academic freedom should be contingent on their policies. Given their willingness to enact discriminatory policies, like the IEAP, we cannot trust Cornell to respect our academic freedom. Our proposal today REJECTED the insertion of their policies as limits on our academic freedom. Conditional freedom isn't freedom. 

Another major issue that is still on the table is Appointment Security. Cornell has asserted that having “poor academic standing” means you should lose access to transitional funding. However, we know grads face retaliation and discrimination across campus in a myriad of ways, including in their academic evaluations. We are fighting for a fair, transparent review of academic performance that includes proper oversight from one’s committee, and a reasonable chance to improve with clear goals and timelines. In effect, we are demanding Just Cause standards for our Appointment Security. 

Cornell has also still not moved on essential nondiscrimination protections. As a reminder, Cornell wanted to tie our Nondiscrimination article to their Policy 6.4, which does not include protections for caste, socioeconomic status, and political affiliation, among other groups. Given the events of last semester, we do not want to tie our nondiscrimination protections to the whims of Cornell policies, like the IEAP. Cornell’s current Policy 6.4 did not protect international grads from Cornell discriminatorily enforcing the IEAP. We deserve protections from discrimination that Cornell acknowledges exists on this campus!

Additionally, Cornell has not yet given us any counter on Union Security, which is the article that determines how union membership is defined for our unit. Our position is that we need universal membership for our members, known as Union Shop. This will create a united campus with stronger benefits and protections for our workers. Union Shop ensures every grad worker automatically becomes a member of the union and contributes to cover the costs of collective bargaining and contract enforcement. Across the nation, Union Shops have stronger contracts and better protections.

📅 What’s Next? 

Our monthly General Membership Meeting (GMM) is this Thursday (July 25) at 5pm in Malott 253 or on Zoom. This is a great way to keep informed about what’s going on and to get involved in our historic contract fight. Please RSVP here.

We can’t wait to see you on Thursday! And after, join us for a beverage of choice at… Personal Best or Liquid State! Vote on our Instagram story for your preference! 🥂

TL;DR:

• RSVP to our Rally to Close the Academic Loophole on July 23rd at noon here! ✊

• When we organize, we win! After last week’s powerful testimonials from our members, we reached a tentative agreement on International Employee Rights 🌎🎉

• Cornell gave counterproposals titled “Academic Distinction” Package that were riddled with carve-outs to important protections that we won’t accept. 😡

Hello CGSU-UE members!

At today’s bargaining session, Cornell presented 12 counterproposals and we presented 6 counterproposals. We also received bargaining dates for August (8th and 20th), September (4th and 19th) and October (9th and 29th). Today, we had an incredible win, but Cornell also delivered a lot of disappointing counterproposals on key issues.

✊ When we organize, we win. The powerful testimonials we heard from our international members at last week’s bargaining session successfully moved Cornell on the International Employee Rights article, which they had previously stalled on for over a month. Today, we reached a tentative agreement on our International Employee Rights article that will change the lives of our international grad members. We know that the International Student Office (ISO) has historically been understaffed and failed to adequately serve grad needs. Now, our article will hold the ISO accountable for providing international grads with necessary information and documents in a timely manner; offering immigration attorney visits once per semester to discuss post-graduation immigration options; and for maintaining accurate and up-to-date information on their website.

We also won incredible improvements to Cornell’s ITAP (International Teaching Assistant Program) and ESL (English as Second Language) course policies. Currently, many international grads are required to take an English proficiency exam to prove that they have the English skills necessary to TA for a course at Cornell. If they do not pass the exam, they are required to take an English course (ALS 5780) that many grads have found unhelpful, inequitable, and incredibly time-consuming. Our article has opened a new pathway for exempting grads from the ITAP requirement, as their advisor can now attest to their English proficiency. It also finally provides grads with clear feedback on their ITAP exam performance, and allows for accommodations if the ALS 5780 course interferes with appointment or degree progress. These provisions will be a game-changer for the many grads who have spent countless hours navigating Cornell’s opaque and often discriminatory ITAP program. These wins are a result of our international graduate worker members speaking up!

🔥 Let’s keep the heat on Cornell to continue to make historic wins at the bargaining table. Join us at our rally this coming Tuesday (July 23rd) at 12pm to move Cornell on the vital articles still on the table!

Cornell started the morning by delivering a set of counterproposals that they dubbed the “Academic Distinction” Package. This included counterproposals on Appointment Security, Workload, Appointment Duties and Scope of Work, Academic Freedom, and Discipline and Discharge. Throughout all of thesecounterproposals, Cornell is trying to maintain their unilateral decision-making power and separate out our duties as “employees'' and “students.” We know that this is a fake distinction since our employment is tied directly to our degree progress and academic standing. We will continue to reject that distinction, especially as Cornell is using this false “academic distinction” as justification for their unilateral power.

In our counterproposal on Appointment Security, we are fighting for a transparent process on academic standing decisions so that our advisors can no longer use bad academic standing as a weapon against us. We want fair and equitable standards. No grad will put on bad academic standing without due process. Grads deserve the opportunity to improve with clear benchmarks and a reasonable timeline. This is still being actively bargained, and we will not accept any version of this article that cedes unilateral power to Cornell.

In Cornell’s Workload counterproposal, they asserted that grads have work duties related to our “employment” and other work duties related to our “academic responsibilities.” Cornell is using this distinction to increase our workload and to get grads to have even more duties and longer work hours. We know grads are already overworked and burnt out under current policies and we will not let Cornell give us even more work.

🔗 Let’s close the academic loopholes. This throughline of academic carve-outs extends to our Discipline and Discharge and Academic Freedom articles. Cornell’s counterproposals on these articles are riddled with this “academic distinction.” In Discipline and Discharge, Cornell implies that all of our day-to-day actions can be classified as purely employment or purely academic. Not only do we know this to be patently false, but also Cornell wants sole authority over any “academic” issue. This would allow Cornell to reclassify any action as academic in nature in order to give themselves unilateral power over the discipline and discharge of grads. We have seen this year that Cornell refuses to use Just Cause standards in their academic discipline cases. We cannot, and will not, accept this.

Similarly, Cornell is trying to maintain power through loopholes in their Nondiscrimination article. Cornell has tried to replace our Nondiscrimination Article with Policy 6.4. Their insistence on this policy is a carve-out in two ways. One, they are excluding a range of classes from protections against discrimination that they acknowledge persists at Cornell (such as caste discrimination). Two, they are trying to tie our nondiscrimination protections to whatever their own Policy 6.4 becomes in the future, meaning that they want to retain unilateral control over whom the policy applies to and how it is enforced. We are very clear that our nondiscrimination protections will not be subject to the whims of Cornell’s policies.

All of these carve-outs that Cornell keeps inserting into its counterproposals are the reason we’re holding a Rally to Close the Academic Loophole on Tuesday (July 23rd) at 12pm outside Warren Hall (on the Ag Quad). Our members are coming together to demand better from Cornell. Join us!

CLOSE THE ACADEMIC LOOPHOLE – RSVP TO THE JULY 23RD RALLY HERE

We can’t wait to see you there.

Solidarity,

⚡CGSU-UE Bargaining Committee⚡

TL;DR:

• We were joined by amazing colleagues who shared powerful statements about international worker rights, transitional funding, discipline and discharge, and nondiscrimination ✊

• After the testimonials, we had an intense bargaining session 🎆

• Next General Membership will be July 25 – GMMs are now monthly AND hybrid ! 🖥️

• GET LOUD - big action on July 23rd, 2024! Save the date 📣

Hello CGSU-UE members!

In today’s bargaining session, we heard powerful testimonials from members of our community about their experiences dealing with Cornell’s lack of support.

We started off with testimonials from international graduate workers about their experiences dealing with the International Student Office (ISO). One graduate worker shared that, as he tried to settle into Ithaca with his wife, Cornell’s ISO “felt more like an adversary than a friend.” We also heard from a graduate worker who suffered financial loss as a result of ISO’s lack of clear information. The worker shared that “while ISO is currently insufficient for the needs of international workers, causing serious stress and financial loss for grad workers, it has the potential to make international grad workers feel welcomed, included, and supported while at Cornell.”

Our brave colleagues also talked about the importance of transitional funding. The circumstances that push people to move labs are heart-wrenching, and one worker described being told “that I will not be getting funded by the PI as a punishment for failing to meet a requirement of a grant that specifically was not going to be enforced due to COVID.” Another worker explained how transitional funding allowed them to flourish in a new lab. “In just 7 months in the new lab, I made so much progress that I’m putting first-author publications together.”

These testimonials were moving, and showed Cornell that our members know that they deserve better! Our members stood together today, and we are excited to stand together again as a union on the 23rd! Mark your calendars!

Cornell asked to have more time to work on their International Employee Rights counter proposal as they knew that their current iteration would be unacceptable to our members. With that, Cornell gave us five counterproposals and we returned five counterproposals. You can find all of these counterproposals on our bargaining tracker.

Throughout their testimonials, we kept coming back to the following key issues: access to transitional funding, international worker rights, nondiscrimination, and discipline and discharge.  

Here’s Cornell’s current stance on each of these key issues:

• Transitional funding - Cornell continues to insist on the division between workers in good and bad academic standing. Cornell thinks that workers who are in bad academic standing do not deserve transitional funding, even those who were put in bad academic standing as a result of discrimination or retaliation. This was in direct response to our members’ statements, where they described taking painstaking efforts to go through the existing “official channels” to forge a path to degree completion. Cornell claimed that they were moved by our members’ testimonials, but in the same breath said, “It’s a financial issue – should we be spending scarce dollars on transitional funding for folks that we’ve determined won’t be fruitful vs. looking for places where we will get better mileage?”

• International employee rights - We now have not received a counterproposal on international employee rights in two bargaining sessions. We find it outrageous and insulting that they’re neglecting an article that directly impacts the lives of over half of our members.

• Nondiscrimination - Cornell gave us their counterproposal on Nondiscrimination, which was actually worse than their last counterproposal. Cornell maintains that they do not want our contract to have a ceiling-raising nondiscrimination policy, rather, they want it to reflect their Policy 6.4. Further, they added language that would tie our nondiscrimination protections to whatever changes they make to Policy 6.4, without needing to bargain over the article. When we pointed to the testimonials showing that their current policy is insufficient, they asked us to wait until the Faculty Senate convenes in September so that the Faculty Senate could consider changing the policy. It’s unacceptable to ask us to wait two months for a counter. It’s unacceptable to ask the Faculty Senate to write a policy for our collective bargaining contract. It’s unacceptable to ask us to ensure that they are entitled to future carve-outs in a nondiscrimination policy.

• MOA, Discipline and Discharge - Despite Cornell’s assurances from last session, they still did not have a counterproposal for the Memorandum of Agreement on future grad worker suspensions. It has been almost two months since their last movement on this topic. Similarly, Cornell has not returned the Discipline and Discharge Article. It has been three bargaining sessions since we counterproposed this article, which included provisions to apply Just Cause principles to all discipline and discharge.

Overall, Cornell is continuing to disrespect us at the table and beyond. They are dragging their feet on fundamental issues in their counterproposals and are clearly unwilling to let go of their disciplinary power, under the guise of academic standing. If these issues are important to you, we invite you to raise your voice with us on July 23rd!

In addition, as always…

• Save the date on your calendar for our July 23 action! 📆

• To RSVP for our next General Membership meeting (Zoom option included!), tap here!

• Fill out our CAT interest form to get involved with our contract fight! 📣

• If you need a union steward or are experiencing discrimination, unfair discipline, or retaliation, please fill out this form, and remember, you are not alone. 🫂

TL;DR:

We reached Tentative Agreements on 3 articles of our contract! 🎉

Our final Grievance Procedure is strong enough to hold our advisors and the Cornell administration accountable to everything in our contract. 💪

Cornell delivered an insultingly bad counterproposal on Appointment Security. 😞

We have our first general membership meeting coming up next week on Thursday, June 27 at 5pm, in Klarman G70 or via Zoom! RSVP here! 📥

Hello CGSU-UE members!

During today’s session, we presented 12 counterproposals and Cornell presented 12 counterproposals. Our continuous back and forth resulted in a Tentative Agreement (TA) on three language articles: Grievance Procedure, Appointment Notification, and Appointment Postings. We are extremely proud of the final version of the Grievance Procedure article and the ways it will serve the Cornell grad worker community - the grievance procedure is the way we protect grads and hold Cornell accountable when they violate our contract. Our grievance procedure has three escalatory steps before third-party arbitration and resolution. Each step is time-limited, meaning that the University must respond to the grievance in a set amount of time. This will make sure no issues get dropped and ignored, as is the current status quo when trying to resolve issues through the Graduate School. Our grievance procedure also includes critical protections like ensuring grads have access to interim relief measures while going through the grievance process and provisions for us to directly escalate emergency grievances. We are confident that our grievance procedure is strong enough to hold our advisors and the Cornell administration accountable to all of the other wins and protections we are going to secure in our contract.

In Appointment Notification, the University agreed to timely appointment letters that will be sent at least 30 days prior to the end of the preceding appointment. It is essential to get appropriate notice for our appointments as we all want to know what job we’re doing during the next academic term! Appointment letters will include critical information, like the our anticipated duties and expectations, maximum number of students in a class for a TA appointment, mandatory training, and sources of funding (like a grant or account number). With these wins, our members will have as much information as possible going into their appointments instead of just being at the whim of their supervisor.

In Appointment Postings, we won the right to a centralized website for open appointments, meaning those that do not secure an appointment within their home departments can now search for an appointment in one place instead of endlessly emailing other departments. These postings will have information about the required work, including anticipated duties, and will be open for at least 5 days. All applicants will receive timely updates about changes in their application status so that those that urgently need appointments are not ghosted.

Today, we also presented our counterproposals on the International Employee Rights and Undocumented and DACA Employee Rights articles. Last time, Cornell’s counterproposals on these articles were insufficient and ours reasserted important provisions like timely and accurate responses from the International Services Office (ISO) and fair International Teaching Assistant Program (ITAP) practices.  

Cornell came back with a very disappointing counterproposal on Appointment Security. Appointment Security is a crucial article and includes protections like guaranteed funding for every semester you are enrolled, protections for no loss of benefits should your appointment be interrupted by unforeseen circumstances (like the class you’re TA-ing for get canceled), safeguards for international grads not losing their appointment due to immigration issues, and guarantees for transitional funding for grads looking to change labs or advisors due to good faith claims of discrimination or harassment.

Cornell, however, does not believe you deserve transitional funding if you are in bad academic standing. Cornell thinks that if you’re in bad academic standing, it is because you are not cut out for graduate school and should leave the program. At the table today, Cornell actually said it would be a waste of resources to provide transitional funding to these grads. We have re-asserted our previous proposal in full and will continue to fight for these critical protections.

One of our major disappointments with Cornell around appointment security is how often grads need transitional funding because they are discriminated against by their advisors, which is in no way related to their research or academic standing. In fact, advisors have unilateral control over one’s academic standing, effectively making it a weapon to push grads out of their programs. If you or someone you know has faced discrimination in the workplace, please fill out this form as we are looking for testimonials to demonstrate to Cornell how prevalent this issue is.

We must hold Cornell accountable for providing us with the best working environment so that we can do the world class teaching and research that we came here to do. This is why our contract needs strong provisions for appointment security, nondiscrimination, and discipline and discharge!

We are fighting for a Nondiscrimination article that will protect an extensive variety of protected classes, such as race, socioeconomic status, class, caste, religion, political affiliation, and political speech, which would be directly applicable for grads who face discrimination from their advisors.

Additionally, bad academic standing is a form of discipline, and in our Discipline and Discharge proposal, we assert that all forms of discipline should be subject to just cause standards, meaning that one’s advisor will no longer be able to arbitrarily decide their academic standing.

We have a lot more to fight for and we are excited for our next bargaining session on July 9. We have our first General Membership Meeting on Thursday, June 27 at 5pm, on Cornell’s Ithaca campus in Klarman G70 or via Zoom. Please RSVP here! This will be a great way for all of our members to be engaged in the process, which is at the core of our worker-led union principles. In addition, as always…

Please fill out our CAT interest form to get involved with our contract fight!

If you need a union steward or are experiencing discrimination, discipline, or retaliation, please fill out this form.  

To help move Cornell at the table, we are asking for examples of any form of discrimination or bias on campus. If you or someone you know has witnessed this kind of offense, please fill out this Google Form!

Until next time, solidarity,

CGSU-UE Bargaining Committee

TLDR:

• We made big moves on key articles like the grievance procedure and union rights

• Cornell only cares about a nondiscrimination clause that sticks to the legal minimum - CGSU-UE wants a nondiscrimination policy that protects all grad workers in need

• Cornell’s counterproposals on International Worker Rights and Appointment Security are insufficient for the needs of our workers

• Cornell, like us, values our UE sibling contracts! We benefit from building on their previous wins

Dear CGSU-UE Members,

Your bargaining committee is back again with bargaining update number 5! Today, we counterproposed 7 articles and Cornell also counterproposed 7 articles. We will go through the highs and lows of today’s counterproposals in this update. But first, we want to acknowledge that our work would not be possible without building off the successes of our UE sister unions. The contracts from our siblings like MIT, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, and UChicago are frequently cited in the bargaining room on both sides. Cornell’s latest counterproposal for Union Rights included a funding transparency section that was taken right from Johns Hopkins’ contract, and we plan on building off of this. These contracts have set the foundation for grad unions, and we’re excited to push the industry standard higher for future grad union contract fights.

Continuing with the amazing productivity from our last session, we have made important progress on several key articles. At the forefront of these are Grievance Procedure and Union Rights, both of which are essential for the enforcement of our contract and longevity of our union. In Grievance Procedure, we are pleased to note that Cornell finally agreed to reasonable interim relief measures before an actual grievance decision, which will effectively protect grad workers facing immediate hardship. For more details, please check our Bargaining Tracker. As we continue, we will not settle for less than what we know our grad workers need and deserve.

Today, while discussing the Nondiscrimination article, Cornell admitted that they want to stick to the legal minimum of current federal and state laws when it comes to protected classes, which are the grounds used to explicitly protect workers from discrimination. These laws unsurprisingly do not cover extremely important groups, such as caste, political affiliation or belief, political action or speech, socioeconomic status, class, ancestry, and medical condition. For example, as highlighted by the recent suspensions, we know that discrimination on the basis of political affiliation or belief is prevalent on campus. Fortunately, due to our testimonials about the prevalence of caste discrimination on campus, Cornell acknowledged the importance of caste discrimination. However, their counterproposal refused to list it as an explicit protected class and instead shoehorned it into the inadequate existing policies. In our counterproposal, we re-asserted caste, political affiliation or belief, political action or speech, and the other classes as explicit protected statuses. We do not accept Cornell’s legal minimum. We want our campus to be at the forefront of nondiscrimination policies and we know that no form of discrimination is acceptable. To help move Cornell at the table, we are asking for examples of any form of discrimination or bias on campus. If you or someone you know has witnessed this kind of offense, please fill out this Google Form!

Before Cornell gave us a counterproposal on International Worker Rights, they gave us a fifteen minute background explainer of the resources for international workers on campus, as though we have not been talking to international workers for years and as though there were no international workers in the room. Cornell boasted about their 10-person International Services Office (ISO). We questioned how many people ISO served, and they estimated over 6000 international undergraduate, professional, and graduate students at Cornell. We then asked if they felt this ratio of 10 staff members to 6000 international students was appropriate to meet the needs of Cornell’s international community, and they astoundingly said yes. We know that this is wildly insufficient, and are working on a counterproposal that will better meet the needs of the international grads on this campus. International grads make up 50% of our population on campus and we know we need better.

We also counterproposed Appointment Security, which includes key protections like guaranteed funding and transitional funding. Cornell has acknowledged that doctoral workers should be guaranteed funding for all fall, spring, and summer terms as long as they are enrolled and that Master’s workers should be guaranteed funding outlined in appointment letters. However, Cornell wanted to make transitional funding (funding for grad workers who are between appointments) conditional on academic standing. Given that our academic standing depends on our advisor’s arbitrary evaluations, we know “academic progress” status is often used as a weapon, thus excluding those who need transitional funding the most. We gave a strong counterproposal on appointment security, where we asserted that transitional funding should not be conditional on academic standing. Additionally, we reasserted that workers with good faith claims of discrimination and/or harassment need access to transitional funding, which will enable them to change advisors. We are awaiting Cornell’s next counterproposal.

We are in the thick of bargaining and ultimately, the fight continues! We are excited for our next bargaining session on June 18. In the meantime:

Please fill out our CAT interest form to get involved with our contract fight!

If you need a union steward or are experiencing discrimination, discipline, or retaliation, please fill out this form.

To help move Cornell at the table, we are asking for examples of any form of discrimination or bias on campus. If you or someone you know has witnessed this kind of offense, please fill out this Google Form!

Solidarity,

CGSU-UE Bargaining Committee

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TL;DR:

We had our most productive bargaining session to date!

We reached a tentative agreement (TA) on the Training article. We also proposed ten counterproposals, and Cornell proposed eleven counterproposals.

Cornell provided a counterproposal on the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) on the effects of disciplinary decisions over our working conditions, in which they moved on the issue of student de-enrollment being up for negotiation.

Unfortunately, Cornell’s counterproposals on Discipline & Discharge, Nondiscrimination, and Appointment Security were below industry standard. We will continue to fight for strong protections on all of these crucial issues.

Follow our progress on our Bargaining Tracker below!

Dear CGSU-UE Members,

Today, we had our most productive bargaining session to date! We focused entirely on counterproposals, which is when each side proposes direct language edits to the articles that will eventually make up the contract. We entered today’s session with counterproposals on Union Rights, Appointment Duties and Scope of Work, Appointment Security, and Training. Cornell entered today’s session with counterproposals on Discipline and Discharge, Grievance Procedure, Strikes and Lockouts, Management Rights, Appointment Notification, Appointment Posting, and Disability Accommodations. We spent most of the day in caucuses, where each side worked on counterproposals in real time. In total for today, we proposed ten counterproposals and Cornell proposed eleven counterproposals. Since the start of bargaining, we have begun negotiations on two-thirds of our language (non-economic) articles.

During this fruitful session, we made major strides at the table, including reaching a tentative agreement (TA) on the Training article. We won the freedom to attend training sessions, including those related to topics outside of academia, without retaliation from our bosses. We also won protections against being forced to attend non-mandatory training. Additionally, we went back and forth on the Appointment Duties and Scope of Work article three times today and made a lot of progress. Our number one priority, as always, is to continue to fight for the best contract possible.

Last bargaining session, after the incredible picket that got Cornell to move on bargaining with us over the effects of graduate workers’ temporary suspensions, we presented Cornell with a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) titled “University Policies Impacting Working Conditions”. Today, we were very excited that Cornell returned a counterproposal on the MOA. Although they made some changes to our proposal, they accepted our language requiring Cornell to bargain over the effects of disciplining graduate workers, including de-enrollment. This is something they previously refused to do. In short, Cornell moved even further on this issue since our last session. This is a huge win and a testament to our power across campus in the last few weeks.

Given how critical this issue is, we promptly made our own counterproposal that focused on adding language to reserve our right to bargain with Cornell over any changes to our working conditions, including those related to the Interim Expressive Activity Policy (IEAP) and the Student Code of Conduct (SCOC). This MOA, if adopted, would come into effect immediately and allow us to gain crucial protections and rights during the bargaining process. We will secure even more rights related to discipline and discharge, freedom of expression, and academic freedom in our full contract. This will be especially important as we continue negotiating the Discipline and Discharge article. Today’s Discipline and Discharge counterproposal from Cornell was concerning: it inserted language that shifted the power balance to Cornell and attempted to hamper our ability to protect our rights as workers. We will not accept any of this language and will be sure to have a counterproposal ready on this for the next session.

Unfortunately, Cornell did not move sufficiently on several key issues. A common theme was Cornell continuously asserting that article terms must be tied to existing Cornell policies. We formed a union because Cornell’s policies have been insufficient in protecting grads! Furthermore, we have all seen the consequences of Cornell unilaterally imposing and enforcing policies that are frankly dangerous and discriminatory. We will continue to use the power of our collective solidarity within our bargaining unit and across campus to create a safer and more equitable community for all.

Specifically, Cornell’s counterproposals on Nondiscrimination and Appointment Security were disappointing and, honestly, fell below industry standard. In their Nondiscrimination counterproposal, Cornell refused to recognize some of our proposed protected classes, such as “caste” and “political affiliation”. Numerous grad unions across the country, including UChicago, MIT, and Columbia, have won protections against discrimination on the basis of caste. As one of our Bargaining Committee members stated, “We have a huge South Asian population on campus across graduate workers, faculty and administration. Caste discrimination is a lived experience on this campus, especially coming from our supervisors.”

Given Cornell’s recent targeting of peaceful protesters, we are not surprised that Cornell opposed “political affiliation” as a protected class. Cornell only enforced the Interim Expressive Activity Policy (IEAP) towards one group of protesters over this last semester, and this was very clearly due to their political affiliation. No policy should be so unevenly applied. More importantly, we believe that every person has the right to freedom of expression and are continuing to push to secure these rights throughout our contract. In our Nondiscrimination counterproposal, we re-inserted both caste and political affiliation as protected classes, and we will fight hard to ensure that no form of discrimination is tolerated on Cornell’s campus.

In the Appointment Security article, Cornell is trying to put a lot of limits on transitional funding, which is a key protection to ensure grads keep getting paid when their appointments are canceled, interrupted, or when they are seeking a new advisor. This is absolutely below industry standard, and grad unions at MIT, Yale, Stanford, and Johns Hopkins have all secured broad transitional funding policies.

Even though we had some major victories today, the fight is far from over, but we know we can get Cornell to move on key issues when we stand together. As a reminder, you can view the current status of all proposals and counterproposals on our Bargaining Tracker. Join our Contract Action Team (CAT) now to get involved in our historic fight. And, as always, follow us on Instagram and Twitter for more frequent updates.

Solidarity,

CGSU-UE Bargaining Committee

TL;DR:

Graduate workers and Cornell community members showed up outside today’s bargaining session to demand that Cornell bargain with us over the recent suspensions and the Interim Expressive Activity Policy (IEAP).

We presented Cornell with a petition signed by almost 2000 Cornell community members calling on Cornell to retract the IEAP.

The pressure worked. Cornell moved! After refusing to bargain over the suspensions, they agreed to talk to us about the effects of the suspensions.

Because Cornell didn’t move enough, and hasn’t promised not to de-enroll graduate workers, we proposed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) to bar Cornell academic policies from making changes to our working conditions.

Finally, we made progress negotiating on our contract. Cornell provided counterproposals on appointment duties and scope of work, appointment security, training, and union rights. We also responded to Cornell’s counterproposals from last session on the grievance procedure and strikes and lockouts.

Dear CGSU-UE Members,

Today, a crowd of graduate workers and Cornell community members showed up outside of our bargaining session at 8:30 AM to demand that Cornell retract the Interim Expressive Activity Policy (IEAP), reinstate workers suspended under the policy, and bargain with us over the suspensions of graduate workers and the IEAP. A long scroll of petition signee names, flanked by dedicated workers, was on display as our community rallied around the need to rescind policies that unjustly discipline workers and erode union rights.

For the entire morning, we could hear our members’ speeches, chants, and banging of pots and pans reverberating throughout the bargaining room. The Cornell Bargaining Committee was visibly shaken by how loud the chants were. On the inside of the room, we delivered our community petition with almost 2000 signatures demanding that Cornell retract the IEAP. Additionally, suspended workers Bianca Waked and Nikhil Sahoo gave powerful testimonies about how their suspensions had impacted their ability to do their work.

Suspended workers like Bianca have been told that they can maintain their appointment and enrollment if they relinquish their right to protest. During her speech at the bargaining table, Bianca said, “there’s no conversation about how I’ve been impacted as a student. It’s about how I’ve been impacted as an instructor. This nefarious deal coerces me into protecting my visa status at the expense of silence.” Bianca’s visa status, like that of most international workers, is contingent on her enrollment as a graduate student, adding further cruelty to Cornell’s position.

Before today’s session, Cornell communicated repeatedly that they are not open to bargaining with CGSU-UE over the suspensions. Today, the pressure inside and outside of the room coalesced and made Cornell move! They agreed to talk to us about the impacts of the suspensions.

In order for this progress to have an immediate impact, we submitted a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) on University Policies Impacting Working Conditions. Unlike the contract, MOAs are special agreements that immediately go into effect once both parties agree. The MOA asserts that no Cornell academic policy can change the working conditions of graduate workers, including their enrollment status, without an agreement between Cornell and the Union. Cornell agreed to talk with us about this MOA, and indicated that they would respond to us during our bargaining session next week. We will continue to demand that Cornell respect our union power and negotiate with us over any changes to working conditions.

In addition to drafting the MOA, we also made progress on negotiating our contract. Cornell provided counterproposals on appointment duties and scope of work, appointment security, training, and union rights. We also responded to Cornell’s counterproposals from last session on the grievance procedure and strikes and lockouts. These were particularly timely as both the grievance procedure and strikes are a way for us to hold the University accountable. During our last bargaining session, Cornell introduced a management rights article. Given the Cornell administration’s reckless behavior with the IEAP and graduate worker suspensions, we rejected that proposed article. As always, the full details of all current proposals can be found on the Bargaining Tracker.

Because of our collective power, Cornell moved on bargaining over the “impacts of the suspensions.” While we await a formal counterproposal to our MOA, we demanded Cornell guarantee that they would not de-enroll the suspended graduate workers. Unfortunately, Cornell refused this request. Despite acknowledging that enrollment status would have an impact on graduate workers working conditions, especially for the international workers, Cornell argued that “the bargaining process cannot supersede the Student Code of Conduct.”

Cornell was clearly thrown and disorganized in the bargaining room today. They acknowledged that de-enrollment affects working conditions, which they have also ceded as a union right, and are relying on inconsistent logic to find a way to maintain the ability to unilaterally change our working conditions and impact our job security. We formed a union so that the entire graduate worker community could fight for improved working conditions and hold Cornell accountable.

Let’s be clear: now that we have a union, Cornell does not get to unilaterally make changes to our lives anymore. We will continue to fight for a Cornell that respects its workers, and especially their freedom of expression, to finally fulfill their promise of “any person, any study.”

Today, we saw that we have the power to hold Cornell accountable to these values.

Our power comes from our members. We will continue mobilizing in the hundreds and thousands to demonstrate our power across campus. Join our Contract Action Team (CAT) now to get involved in our historic fight. And, as always, follow us on Instagram and Twitter for more frequent updates.

Solidarity,

CGSU-UE Bargaining Committee

TL;DR:

Last Wednesday, we had our Rally for Respect to demand that Cornell give us the bargaining time that we deserve.

Thanks to our collective power, Cornell gave us 7 full-day bargaining sessions through July.

We’re making progress on bargaining! We reached a tentative agreement on 1 article and counterproposed on 1 article. Cornell gave us 3 counterproposals and 4 new proposals.

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Thank you for attending our Rally for Respect last week. It was extremely successful and resulted in us securing 56 scheduled hours of bargaining. We have 7 full-day sessions for May through July. Our dates are: May 8th, May 16th, June 6th, June 18th, July 9th, July 18th, and July 23rd! This will help us move our contract forward to secure protections like universal membership (known as union shop), a robust grievance procedure, nondiscrimination, “Just Cause” discipline and discharge procedures, and improved health and safety standards.

This win is OUR win. Our strength was demonstrated by every member turning out and showing their support. Our collective power has moved Cornell to take this process seriously and we can now focus on productive bargaining for an incredible first contract.

In today’s bargaining session, we reached a tentative agreement (TA) on the Agreement Article. TA means both CGSU-UE and Cornell agree on the article language. It is now considered final until our membership votes to ratify it upon completion of our entire contract.

In our first session, Cornell counterproposed our Recognition Article to refer to us as “Bargaining Unit Members” instead of “Employees.” Today, we counterproposed back to “Employees.” During discussions, Cornell’s lead spokesperson acknowledged that we fit the definition of “employees”, but that Cornell prefers to think of us as students. In response BC member Arnav asserted that “Cornell treats us and makes us work as employees, makes profits from the labor we do as employees, but denies us the basic benefits and dignity of an employee.” We look forward to continuing to address our needs as employees in our future sessions.

We also received counterproposals from Cornell on the Grievance Procedure, Union Rights, and Severability. There are some significant changes that we will continue to negotiate over to secure our fundamental rights as a union to ensure our strength and longevity. Additionally, Cornell proposed four new articles, mostly on Management Rights. We are excited for the additional bargaining time we received so that we can continue to make progress, and we are pleased that Cornell is now doing their part at the table. As a reminder, all proposals and counterproposals can be viewed on our bargaining tracker.

The real work for getting our contract is finally underway. Our future sessions are what we have been fighting for. Your presence at the rally mattered .If you want to get more involved in CGSU-UE, fill out this form!

TL;DR:

Bargaining started today, and we launched our bargaining tracker

Despite Cornell not being serious about the process, we got future dates from Cornell, but unfortunately this totals to less than 8 hours over the course of the semester, aka not enough to make meaningful progress towards a life-changing contract

We are holding a rally to demand that Cornell gets serious at the table so we can secure grad protections and win a a historic contract

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Today was the first day of bargaining! Thank you all for wearing your CGSU-UE Buttons to show your support! Your elected BC Members met Cornell’s BC, made our opening statements, and delivered our non-economic (language) proposals, which you can follow in our bargaining tracker.

In our opening statements, we talked about the urgency for bargaining and top issues, such as union shop, discipline and discharge, academic freedom, and nondiscrimination. For a full summary, see our bargaining platform.

Some of our hottest takes were:

“If Cornell wants to live up to its promise of belonging and inclusion, then we will agree at this table to a strong union with universal membership through union shop, to protecting grads against discrimination and undue discipline, and to ACTUALLY value freedom of expression.”

“That the draconian Interim Expressive Activity Policy restricting grad workers’ free speech was so haphazardly implemented during Cornell’s ‘freedom of expression theme year’ is an abject embarrassment to this institution which I personally will never forget, because it is both so funny and so depressing.”

Our statements visibly impacted Cornell’s bargaining committee members and we were honored to communicate the needs and voices of all grads on campus.

Unfortunately, Cornell was completely unprepared to engage with our proposals. When we asked for more bargaining dates, Cornell’s BC came back with ONLY TWO bargaining dates, April 16 and May 16, for a duration of only a few hours each. This will total to less than eight hours over the course of the entire semester. Cornell is not currently giving CGSU-UE the bargaining time that we need to make meaningful progress with negotiations. Fewer than eight hours in a semester is unacceptable.

Members should know that Cornell’s BC has promised to provide additional information on future dates within the next 24 hours, but our election was certified on November 20, 2023, Cornell has known of our intent to bargain for 45 days, and we have organized our entire BC team to put 40 pages of grad worker protections on the table. The Cornell faculty and admin simply have no excuse for this level of unpreparedness and disengagement.

Cornell’s BC also gave us the first counterproposal on standard contract language, which can be read here. This, unfortunately, included calling us Bargaining Unit Members (BUMs) instead of Employees, as they still insist that we are students and not workers.

We demand that the Cornell Administration demonstrate an actual commitment to bargaining. The few hours of bargaining they have provided this semester is astoundingly small; our fellow UE shops at MIT, Northwestern, University of Chicago, Johns Hopkins, and elsewhere met their employers at the table for full-day bargaining sessions multiple times a month, which has allowed them to make progress negotiating life-changing contracts for their members. We need Cornell to get with the program.

Are you ready to show Cornell that they cannot dismiss your voice and your needs? For years we’ve been asking for better health and safety standards, protection from overwork, appointment security, and support for international workers, and we can only get those if Cornell actually takes the time to sit down at the table with us and work on these proposals.