ITHACA, N.Y. — The union representing Cornell University graduate students is demanding the university give recent bargaining efforts “the time and attention it deserves.”
Cornell Graduate Students United – Union for Everyone (CGSU-UE) organized a rally Wednesday with around 200 attendees behind Day Hall, Cornell University’s administrative building on campus.
Hand-painted signs and mega phones in hand, union members and attendees demanded Cornell’s bargaining team take immediate action to address a set of articles CGSU-UE’s bargaining committee drafted and proposed March 25.
CGSU-UE, which is affiliated with United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE), one of the oldest labor unions in the county, represents master’s and doctoral students who work as teaching and research assistants at Cornell’s Ithaca, Roosevelt Island and Geneva campuses.
In a landslide victory, Cornell graduate students voted to unionize in November 2023. The nascent union is now in the early months of negotiating its first collective bargaining agreement with Cornell University.
Rebecca Valli, the university’s senior director of media relations, said Cornell is “actively engaging in negotiations” with CGSU-UE in a statement sent Wednesday.
Valli said Cornell met with the union once thus far, and has additional bargaining sessions scheduled, including one next week. However, Valli said reaching a labor contract with CGSU-UE could take a “significant amount of time.”
“Based on the experience of other private colleges and universities, the parties can anticipate spending a significant amount of time to reach a first collective bargaining agreement,” Valli said. “We are committed to devoting the time necessary to do so in a way that reflects Cornell’s values and addresses the needs of our students.”
Syracuse University reached a first-ever collective bargaining agreement with the union that represents its graduate students after seven months of negotiations, announced March 28. Members of the graduate student program at the University of Chicago also ratified their first collective bargaining agreement in March, following about 10 months of negotiations.
“Cornell has not been making bargaining with CGSU-UE the priority it deserves to be. The first session was March 25, and the next session is scheduled April 16, said Sadie Seddon-Stettler, CGSU-UE organizer and second-year Ph.D. student in physics.
“We need Cornell to make this a priority by committing enough time to bargaining with the union that both sides can make meaningful progress on life-changing contract proposals.”
Seddon-Stettler and other organizers stuck to pre-scripted remarks at the rally Wednesday. Rally organizers instructed attendees to not speak with the press if approached, but to direct reporters to designated organizers with prepared statements.
At the rally, Seddon-Stettler spoke broadly of Cornell needing to give time and attention to “crucial workplace issues,” such as discrimination, harassment, academic freedom, fair discipline and discharge, and health and safety.
While union members and attendees work and study across departments at the university, Seddon-Stettler specifically spoke of her experiences working in a high hazard physics lab on campus, and desire to improve health and safety protections for graduate students.
Seddon-Stettler said Wednesday she regularly handles life-threatening high voltage electrical equipment and worries about the consequences of long-term radiation exposure.
“Facing these hazards is crucial for my work, which is cutting edge research at the frontier of accelerator physics,” Seddon-Stettler said. “But it also means that I face the risk of injury and permanent harm daily.”
CGSU-UE members created a “Bargaining Tracker” spreadsheet available on the union’s website to track the negotiation process as the two entities move closer to agreeing on a contract.
Once the two bargaining teams agree on the contractual terms contract, union members will vote to either accept or reject the new terms.