The Stony Brook Worker

Why the United States Doesn’t Observe May 1 as Labor Day

Matt Heidtmann

In countries around the world, May 1 is commonly recognized as International Workers’ Day. But when it comes to honoring the accomplishments of organized labor, the United States occupies quite a different ideological and symbolic terrain compared to most western industrialized democracies.

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Say No to SBU’s and President McInnis’ Institutional Discrimination Against International Grad Workers

SBU GSEU International Student Workers Committee

For a school that prides itself as a champion of international students with a robust international community, Stony Brook’s administration fares no better than most other neoliberal higher education institutions, especially in their treatment of international grad workers. The discourse of diversity and inclusion remains hypocritical when administration not only makes the lives of international grad workers harder but also remains silent and inactive on the institutional mechanisms that put international grad workers in a disadvantaged position.

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Suffolk County Police Silence Critics by Harassing a Professor and Bullying Stony Brook University

Stony Brook Faculty Op-Ed

Why do acts of spectacular police violence against people of color, including the recent murder of Tyre Nichols, feel so painfully like reruns? The answer is as obvious as it is intractable: the police have nearly unchecked power.

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GSEU'S Upcoming Contract Negotiation

Stony Brook Worker Editorial

All graduate students who are paid employees as TAs, GAs, or RAs at Stony Brook are represented by the Graduate Student Employees Union (GSEU) and Research Assistants Union (RAU). GSEU and RAU collectively bargain for and negotiate with New York State and the Research Foundation (respectively), over our labor contracts that govern our employment here at Stony Brook University. This contract determines our pay, benefits, and working conditions. GSEU safeguards our rights as workers, and it ensures that our employers cannot take advantage of, harass, overwork, discriminate against, or unfairly dismiss us. GSEU is also the reason that we have benefits like health, dental, and vision insurance as part of our employment package. Continue >>

Bargaining Update from Fordham Graduate Student Workers (FGSW)

Benjamin Van Dyne, FGSW Coordinating Committee

This fall, after a landslide victory in the election for recognition of our union in April, Fordham Graduate Student Workers (FGSW, now also part of CWA 1104) began bargaining toward a contract with Fordham University. In our first five bargaining sessions, Fordham responded to our comprehensive proposals with stonewalling, willful misunderstanding, deception, and a patronizing attitude. We are going into the spring more determined than ever to build our power and to demonstrate to Fordham that our members should be—and will be—treated with respect.

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SBU GSEU’s Living Wage Campaign - A Biography

Anna Zarra Aldrich, Debjani Chakrabarty, Matthew Dickinson, Matthew Heidtmann, and Amy Kahng

It is no secret that wages for working people have remained stagnant for decades, while the cost of living has precipitously increased. As one of the most vulnerable classes of workers, graduate students at U.S. universities are no exception to this trend. While our employers have fully embraced neoliberal axioms and premises under which they continue to marketize and commodify higher education, many graduate students are unable to sustain themselves.

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Interview with SBU United University Professions (UUP)

Stony Brook Worker Editorial and Andrew Solar-Greco

SBW: Can you introduce UUP, who you represent, the structure of the union, and how many members you have?

ASG: We represent the faculty and staff at the main campus, Stony Brook West Campus. We have about 2,400 members, and we represent full-time faculty, part-time faculty, faculty who are not tenured or on the tenure track, and the professional staff in academic departments advising, athletics, et cetera.

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GSEU Campus Updates

Stony Brook Worker Editorial

Stony Brook is just one of sixty-four institutions in the SUNY system–the largest state university system in the United States. We spoke to graduate worker representatives from GSEU chapters at SUNY Buffalo, SUNY Albany, and SUNY Binghamton to learn about recent and current campaigns, difficulties, and victories. Continue >>

NYU adjuncts win a favorable new contract: What academic unions can learn

Mae Saslaw

On Friday November 4, New York University Adjuncts Union, ACT-UAW Local 7902 held a victory rally at Schwartz Plaza on NYU’s West Village campus. The rally was originally planned as a picketing event, but union members had just approved a new tentative agreement hours after the previous contract expired on November 1. The union prevailed in bargaining and won significant improvements to their pay and benefits after authorizing a strike with 95% of voting members in favor. With the raises guaranteed by their new contract, NYU adjuncts are now some of the highest paid unionized contingent instructors in the U.S., according to their press release announcing the tentative agreement.

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Interview with Brandworkers Staff Union

Stony Brook Worker Editorial and Brandworkers Staff Union

SBW:Can you tell our readers about Brandworkers?

Cody: Brandworkers is a nonprofit worker center that supports food and beverage production workers to build their own unions.

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