Syracuse Graduate Employees United maps road to formal unionization

By Jana Seal, writer for The Daily Orange | Published on January 22, 2023

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Following Syracuse Graduate Employees United’s Tuesday announcement of its intent to unionize, the group is preparing its efforts to gain official recognition as a labor union at Syracuse University.

When student workers organize to form a union, SGEU organizer and graduate student in public affairs Amanda Beavin said they can achieve official recognition – which requires that employers engage in negotiations with the union – in one of two ways: either the institution which employs them chooses to voluntarily recognize the union, or it holds an election in order to gain recognition statutorily.

Here’s how the process of unionization and gaining official recognition works for student labor unions, as well as what the next steps might look like for SGEU.

Voluntary recognition

Leading up to SGEU’s announcement of its intent to unionize, the group has been working to garner support for the union by having student workers sign cards to affirm their support for forming a union at SU. Beavin said the effort over the course of the last semester has served to measure support for the union.

Upon receiving signed cards from a simple majority of graduate workers on campus, the union will begin the process of pursuing recognition, according to SGEU’s website.

Beavin said the group plans to approach SU to formally request that the university choose to recognize it as a union and effectively choose to enter into negotiations, or “collective bargaining,” with the group.

Ideally, Beavin said, SU would at that point agree and the process for official recognition would end there.

“We are so hopeful that they’re going to be working with us through this process and do the right thing by doing this. Just reaching support and then asking, we want a union and the administration saying yes, and that is always the best route to go if possible.”

Historically, universities have not voluntarily recognized student unions. In March 2022, student workers at Wesleyan University became the first undergraduate student labor union to win voluntary recognition from an institution of higher education.

Most commonly, Beavin said, student workers’ unions have to hold elections in order to achieve recognition, pointing to recent union elections at Boston University, Yale University and Northwestern University which gained official recognition from the universities’ respective student unions.

Recognition via election

If SU, like BU, Yale and Northwestern, doesn’t voluntarily recognize the student labor union, Beavin said SGEU will hold an election through the National Labor Relations Board.

She said the union has already achieved majority support from graduate student workers at SU, which surpasses the threshold of 30% needed to file an election with the NLRB. In the event SU chooses not to voluntarily recognize SGEU, the union will file for an election and set a date for it to take place on campus.

SGEU would need a simple majority of votes in the election in order to win recognition.

Filing period

Before an election can take place, Beavin said a student union must undergo a filing process with its associated college or university, in which the union and the employer work to decide who will be able to participate in the election.

At SU, she said that as student workers have different statuses and circumstances – some being half-funded, paid hourly, or supported via fellowships – this period of time will mean going back and forth with SU to decide who counts as a graduate student worker for the purpose of the election and is therefore eligible to vote.

SGEU is set to host a “Teach-in” in the HBC Kittredge Auditorium at 6:30 p.m. on Monday to increase education for SU students and faculty on the campaign’s history, as well as what unions do and how they work, Beavin said. The event is open to graduate and undergraduate students, as well as other members of the SU community.

Published on January 22, 2023 at 11:07 pm

Contact Jana: jlseal@syr.edu | @JanaLoSeal