Research assistants cited low wages, unsafe working conditions, and the need for increased international worker protections as primary motivations for forming a union. Recent contract wins for GSEU and Stony Brook RAU, including raises, bonuses, strong health and safety articles, and international protections, created disparities between grad workers both within and across universities and highlighted the need for RA unions everywhere. Against this backdrop, research assistants took up the initiative to transform their workplaces.
A neutrality agreement between CWA and the Research Foundation presented a unique organizing opportunity for research assistants. Under the agreement, management and supervisors are barred from taking a position on organizing – meaning that there could be no anti-union campaign. Even so, organizers navigated significant challenges, ranging from dispersed work locations and locked labs to growing apprehension among international workers under the Trump administration to a general sense of alienation and isolation amongst research assistants. Organizing committees made up of research assistants from across departments spent months having difficult conversations, organizing events, and building a sense of community, culminating in strong turnouts and landslide victories.
Research assistants across New York are celebrating – but their work is not done. They will now go to the bargaining table with their demands, seeking to make necessary improvements to their working and living conditions. Bargaining is already underway in Binghamton, and will soon begin in Albany and Buffalo. Solidarity between GSEU and RAU will be crucial to these efforts, as we fight to build power and workplace democracy for all graduate workers. Congratulations to all research assistants, and welcome to 1104!
