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Graduate-student workers at Stanford University have unionized, the result of an April vote that saw 94% of ballots cast in favoring the move, the Stanford Graduate Workers Union (SGWU-UE) announced. The new union will be represented by the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers (UE).
The graduate students have said they long sought to gain better wages and benefits, a lower cost of living, stronger support for international students and better protections against harassment and discrimination at Stanford. Graduate workers provide services to the university that include teaching and research and numerous other kinds of support.
Failing to achieve their goals, in April the students mounted an election to form a union to bargain on their behalf. The student employees signed 2,500 union cards on the first day of the April drive, the union organizers said.
The National Labor Relations Board released the results on July 6, which showed that approximately 51% of eligible voters cast a ballot. Of those, 1,639 voted yes (94%) and 108 voted no.
“The overwhelming margin of victory in this historic election shows that we have widespread support for our platform of better wages that keep up with the cost of living, and increased protections for graduate workers,” said Chris Gustin, a fourth year Ph.D. candidate and international student in Stanford’s Applied Physics department. “We are excited to begin working toward negotiating a first contract with Stanford that can win us these goals.”
The Stanford Graduate Workers Union is the first graduate union to complete both a card drive and election in one quarter. The new union joins ones at Dartmouth, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, University of Chicago, and other universities that have academic workers’ unions for graduate students.
“The creation of SGWU-UE was driven by the same issues that have been central to the recent wave of graduate worker unionization across the country: stipends that do not keep up with the rising cost of living, supervisor abuse, high costs for child care and dependent health care, insufficient protections for international workers, and many others,” the new union stated in the announcement.
“As Stanford is both employer and landlord for a vast majority of its graduate workers, it is imperative that graduate workers have a say in their living and working conditions. SGWU-UE will fight to address these issues.”
On July 6, Stanford University President Marc Tessier-Lavigne and Provost Persis Drell addressed the unionization in a statement.
“We look forward to working in good faith with SGWU. As has been our position throughout the election process, we are dedicated to the success of our graduate students and to our education and research mission. These commitments will continue to guide us. We will provide information to our community about the next steps in the bargaining process as it becomes available.”
The United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers has been selected as the exclusive representative of the Stanford Graduate Workers Union bargaining unit, the university noted.
“Thank you to all those who participated in the election and to those who provided support for the election process. As university leaders, we will continue to respect, support, and work to advance the needs of our graduate student community,” the university stated.
