Last month, University of Vermont graduate students announced they were seeking to unionize, hoping to improve their compensation, benefits and working conditions.
“Graduate students do essential work for the university that allows it to run,” organizers wrote in an Oct. 24 press release. “They do research, they teach classes, and they are a vital part of the university’s goal to attain recognition as a top research university with R1 status.”
University administrators, however, had different ideas about the role of graduate students at the university. The next day, administrators emailed grad students to express their “serious concerns about a graduate student union being in the best interests of either our students or the university.”
“UVM believes the graduate student relationship is primarily and predominantly an educational and mentoring relationship,” said the email, which was signed by Patricia Prelock, the UVM provost and senior vice president, and by Holger Hoock, the graduate college dean.
The organizing effort at the Burlington university is part of a nationwide surge in graduate student unionization. A back-and-forth between organizers and the UVM administration appears to highlight already-simmering tensions between grad students and their university — even before a union election.
Through the union — called Graduate Students United — UVM grad students are seeking higher wages, more benefits, affordable child care and elimination of the university’s “comprehensive fee,” an expense that funds various university functions.
Most students “make just above what would qualify us for food stamps and Medicaid,” Ayana Curran-Howes, a Ph.D. student in food systems and member of the proposed union’s organizing committee, told VTDigger. “It’s rough. We’re just barely making it each month.”
About two dozen Vermont lawmakers have signed a letter to UVM’s leadership in support of the union.
In response to Graduate Students United’s announcement, UVM created a lengthy FAQ webpage, including information about signing union cards, the bargaining process, union dues and the current benefits available to graduate students. On that webpage, the university reiterated its opposition to the unionization effort.
The university told grad students that they “would not be able to ‘opt out’ of being represented by the union” and urged them to think carefully before signing an authorization card.
“A union may limit the ability of the University and faculty to work directly with graduate students and agree upon individualized conditions, accommodations, and experiences — the very hallmarks of a graduate education, especially Ph.D. training,” the university wrote.
In response to emailed questions, Adam White, a spokesperson for the university, referred VTDigger to that FAQ.
But organizers saw the webpage as an attempt to discourage students from voting for the union. In a press release, graduate student organizers accused the university of “union busting” and an “attempt to stoke fear and divide our fellow graduate students.”
“Our confidence that we will secure a union for graduate student workers is steadfast,” the union said.
UVM has agreements with multiple campus unions, including United Academics, which represents faculty, and UVM Staff United, which includes employees in various other campus positions.
Grad students submitted a petition to the Vermont Labor Relations Board on Oct. 30. Under Vermont statute, the union must submit signatures from at least 30% of the group it wishes to represent to become recognized. Graduate Students United said it had signatures from a majority of the proposed union members.
After receiving the petition, UVM has seven business days to respond. The university can accept the union as proposed, or it can object to its composition — by arguing, for example, that different types of graduate students are too dissimilar to be in the same bargaining unit.
The proposed union would include “all full-time and regular part-time graduate teaching assistants, graduate research assistants, graduate assistants, pre-doctoral trainees, pre-doctoral trainees/fellows, and all other graduate students in other titles who are employed in an academic position,” according to the petition. Graduate Students United would join the United Auto Workers Local 2322, based in Holyoke, Massachusetts. (The United Auto Workers has members in various fields and not just the automotive industry.)
If the university and the union cannot agree on the composition of the bargaining unit, the matter would be decided by the Vermont Labor Relations Board after a hearing. Once that is settled, an election of all the proposed union members would take place.
Judith Dillon, the executive director of the Vermont Labor Relations Board, said she expects the election to happen before the end of the year.
