SU graduate student workers vote in favor of recognizing SGEU as their union

By Dominic Chiappone, Asst. News Editor for The Daily Orange | Published on April 5, 2023

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Graduate student workers at Syracuse University voted 728-36 in favor of officially recognizing Syracuse Graduate Employees United as a union. The election result, announced Tuesday evening, means SGEU can now begin legitimate negotiations for collective bargaining with SU.

The vote, hosted in the JMA Wireless Dome over the course of Monday and Tuesday, overwhelmingly affirmed the union formation under SGEU in affiliation with Service Employees International Union, a national organization for labor workers, according to a Tuesday news release from graduate worker and SGEU member Amanda Beavin.

Representatives from SGEU and the university will meet to discuss a timeline for negotiating a collective bargaining agreement, according to a Tuesday night email from Gretchen Ritter, SU’s vice chancellor, provost and chief academic officer. SGEU and SEIU will represent 1,124 current graduate students during bargaining negotiations, according to the email.

“We will negotiate in the spirit of partnership and respect that have been the hallmarks of our labor-management relationships to date,” Ritter said in the email. “In the meantime, we remain committed to ensuring a positive, rewarding and successful experience for all our graduate students.”

SGEU first launched its unionization campaign on Jan. 17 in hopes of securing higher stipend pay, improved healthcare and better protections for workers, according to a release. At a Feb. 8 march across campus, SGEU members and other graduate student workers expressed their frustration and presented Ritter with letters calling for SU to voluntarily recognize the union.

According to Ritter’s email, Ph.D. students from every SU college except the School of Architecture and College of Visual and Performing Arts, which do not offer Ph.D. programs, qualify for the bargaining unit. Other eligible students include all those currently enrolled in a master’s degree program, as well as stipend recipients who work as teaching assistants, research assistants and graduate administrative assistants for SU’s Graduate School.

Joseph Beckmann, an SGEU member who works as a teaching assistant in the mathematics department, emphasized the importance of solidarity with the union among the rest of the SU community as it fights for better working conditions for all workers at SU.

“I know so many people who can barely afford their health care, barely pay for things like family needs because the university just isn’t taking care of the people that they should be taking care of,” Beckmann said.

SGEU’s union victory comes after graduate research assistants at SUNY ESF on Friday launched a campaign to form a union with the affiliate union Communications Workers of America.

Rachel May (D-48), who represents parts of Onondaga County and Cayuga County in the New York State Senate, said in SGEU’s Tuesday release it was an honor to stand behind the organization following its victory. Before the Tuesday vote, May said in a tweet that she supported SGEU’s bargaining negotiations over working conditions.

“SU graduate workers teach, grade papers, and research while carrying a heavy class load, so they deserve a living wage for the long hours and hard work,” May said in the release. “I’m excited they’re finally being recognized, and I look forward to how Syracuse Graduate Employees United improves living and working conditions for current and future graduate workers.”

Now, SGEU is set to form a commission committee to organize employees with representation from each of SU’s departments, said Hayden Courtney, a graduate student worker and SGEU member. Cassidy Thomas, a member of SGEU’s organizing committee, told The Daily Orange on Feb. 14 that all graduate student employees would have a say in selecting the SGEU members who will represent the union in bargaining negotiations.

With a union victory secured and negotiations with the university nearing, Courtney emphasized the importance of the achievement for organizers and all graduate workers.

“Everybody here has been working their tails off in order to get to this point,” Courtney said. “Just to see everybody’s face light up as soon as that number dropped, I think the gravity of it was felt by everybody.”