Graduate employees union requests voluntary recognition from Stanford

The Stanford Graduate Employees Union (SGWU) requested voluntary recognition from the College as we speak, in keeping with an e-mail despatched to the SGWU mailing checklist this morning by the SGWU coordinating committee, a bunch of graduate employees who coordinate union occasions.

The transfer follows a card-signing marketing campaign throughout which over 3,600 Stanford graduate student-workers signed authorization playing cards expressing their curiosity in being represented by the SGWU, in keeping with organizer Tania Flores, a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate in Iberian and Latin American Cultures. Flores mentioned that the SGWU petitioned the College for voluntary recognition “based mostly on the variety of playing cards” it acquired.

The Nationwide Labor Relations Board (NLRB) web site states that if no less than 30% of employees have signed playing cards, they will grow to be represented by a union by an NLRB election if a majority of voters vote in favor of the union. Nevertheless, they will additionally grow to be represented by the union by one other avenue: if the employer voluntarily acknowledges the union “based mostly on proof” that “a majority of staff need it to characterize them” — often by signed playing cards, in keeping with the NLRB’s web site.

College spokesperson Stett Holbrook wrote in an e-mail to The Each day that the College “[has] acquired the request for voluntary recognition, and the request is presently beneath evaluation by the college.”

The SGWU launched its unionization marketing campaign on the primary day of spring quarter, citing persistent affordability points, meals insecurity, lack of recourse for office harassment and energy imbalances between graduate employees and the College as among the points driving graduate employees’ push to unionize.

Later that week, College President Marc Tessier-Lavigne and Provost Persis Drell addressed the marketing campaign by an e-mail to the Stanford group. Of their e-mail, they inspired graduate college students to “contemplate carefully what it means to grow to be a member of a union.” Additionally they dedicated to “open dialogue” with graduate college students, whereas reaffirming their “sturdy place” that the College ought to retain the fitting to make selections associated to tutorial issues and that “unionization is about employment issues, not tutorial ones.”

Holbrook didn’t reply to a query about whether or not the College’s stance on its relationship with graduate college students or its angle in the direction of unionization have modified over the course of the SGWU’s card-signing marketing campaign.

In its e-mail to the SGWU mailing checklist, the SGWU coordinating committee known as voluntary recognition “probably the most environment friendly and collaborative manner” for the union to start negotiations with the College.

Flores mentioned that it’s “clear {that a} sturdy majority of Stanford’s graduate employees need a union,” including that graduate student-workers are able to cut price with Stanford for higher working circumstances.

“We name on the College to acknowledge us as a union,” Flores mentioned. “The College has the chance to respect the desires of its graduate employees at this juncture, and we hope that they may achieve this.”

If the College doesn’t voluntarily acknowledge the SGWU, organizers plan to petition to have an NLRB election happen inside the subsequent few weeks, in keeping with the coordinating committee’s e-mail.

SGWU organizer Hanon McShea, a fifth-year Ph.D. candidate in Earth system science, mentioned that the SGWU would goal to have an election as quickly as potential on this situation.

“Graduate employees wrestle right here every single day,” McShea mentioned. “In order quickly as we are able to start negotiating for enhancements to our lives at Stanford, the higher.”

Flores added that Stanford graduate employees are “struggling on numerous ranges,” citing an absence of inexpensive housing, healthcare and psychological well being points. The problems are “pressing,” she mentioned, and have an effect on graduate employees’ well-being and skill to work, do analysis and educate.

“It’s actually our hope that the College will acknowledge that these are solvable points that we are able to work collectively to handle,” Flores mentioned, “and that the College will respect our need to cut price in good religion.”