I read with interest the email that the President and Provost sent to the Stanford community with regard to the efforts of Stanford graduate students to unionize. Unfortunately, it contains some basic misunderstandings regarding this activity. I am writing this piece because I believe that if Stanford is going to move toward a more equitable and just set of working conditions for its graduate students, a better grasp of the issue is warranted.
I speak as someone who was involved in organizing as a graduate student at UC Berkeley, and who has maintained a keen interest in this topic. This past December, I devoted an episode of my podcast, “Speaking Out of Place,” to interviews with student organizers, strikers and faculty at not only four campuses in the University of California system, but also with their counterparts at the London School of Economics and at other universities and colleges in the United Kingdom, who, as part of the massive University and College Union (UCU), were also on strike. Of the many notable things I learned was that the activists on both sides were very aware of what was going on across the Atlantic, and that their goals and values were very similar, as were their grievances. What we are witnessing is a seismic shift in post-secondary education and the conditions under which people work.
Let me quote this part of the President’s and Provost’s letter to the Community, which captures the core of my concerns:
We encourage every graduate student to consider closely what it means to become a member of a union, what it means to engage in collective bargaining and what it means to have their educational experience governed by a collective bargaining agreement. It is important to note that, if elected, the union will represent not only today’s graduate students, but also future graduate students, who will not have the same opportunity to vote on union representation.
The impression one gets from these words is that many of the graduate students who are embarking on this effort are naïve and unfamiliar with unions, collective bargaining and the effect unionization might have on future graduate students. It suggests that, rather than work under a collective bargaining agreement which they have helped create, graduate students might prefer to work under conditions over which they have no control, that is, the status quo. The Graduate Student Council’s recent vote of no confidence in the administration should give pause.
In fact, the campaign at Stanford is not unlike the efforts at the UC system, at UCU in the United Kingdom, or the efforts we see at Princeton, Harvard, Duke, Columbia, the New School and elsewhere. So far, in the United States nearly 30,000 graduate students have unionized. Most of these endeavors have been years in the making. Some have been in process for nearly a decade, as working conditions for graduate student workers across the US have steadily deteriorated. Most graduate students consequently know more about this topic than many administrators and faculty — they, not administrators or faculty, have to deal with these radically diminished conditions every single day.
To give a vivid account of their concerns and beliefs, I include below samples of comments I gathered. I cite UK organizers at the London School of Economics on various topics and their counterparts in the University of California system to convey how the grievances of Stanford graduate workers are not at all unique, either in this country or in the UK even. When one realizes this, one can gain a better sense of the dimension, duration and depth of these issues.
Finally, and very importantly, one should recognize that unionization enjoys a great deal of support from undergraduates, who have spoken at pro-union events and rallies. Graduate students, despite their overwhelming burdens, have shown themselves time and again to be empathetic, diligent and caring. I repeatedly heard testimonials from undergraduates to that effect. Their support for graduate students might be summed up in a statement that was made often — “the only people on campus who actually know my name are other undergraduates, and my TAs.”
To conclude, the administration’s letter ends with assertions of care — but after years and years of neglect, something more than fine words is necessary. Those involved in the effort to unionize know full well that it is extremely unlikely that they themselves will benefit in any way from their efforts. They are working for a union out of a profound sense of obligation to and solidarity with all those who will follow. They do not wish on others the suffering they have endured. And they also do this out of a deep commitment to quality education — they feel that the conditions under which they are forced to work make it nearly impossible to be the teachers, and researchers they wish to be.
I write this because I care about Stanford, and I worry that if we go forward without fully understanding the nature of the fight for unionization — why it is necessary, and just how deeply its supporters understand its nature and importance — we will not have the kind of productive discussion we need.
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