Graduate Students Request Union Vote at Vanderbilt | Mark in the wind | Nashville News

Vanderbilt University graduates filed for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board on Wednesday, a move that signals confidence from organizers who have solidified support on campus for more than a year.

Within 24 hours, Vanderbilt's lawyers filed a motion to slow the process, arguing that a hearing scheduled by the NLRB for Oct. 10 had not given the school enough time to prepare its response. The NLRB filing estimates the campus bargaining unit – the total number of eligible employees covered by these negotiations – at 2,200 and includes “all graduate students enrolled at Vanderbilt University who provide teaching services, research services, or administrative services, regardless of the funding source.” To win a union, a simple majority of the bargaining unit must vote in favor.

Universities across the country have experienced a boom in campus unions in recent years.

Vanderbilt Organizers reported in February that they had collected hundreds of union credentials from colleaguesThis is a typical first step towards consolidating support. National union giant United Auto Workers of America helped guide the campus group Vanderbilt Graduate Workers United through the legal and practical work of forming a union. The NLRB opened the labor process on October 2nd.

The university has stepped up its anti-union messaging in recent months. A school website called “Union Facts” lays out arguments against unionization. While the petitioners' case is based on the functioning of graduate students as employees, the school emphasizes on-campus work as educationally valuable and describes a “mentor-mentee relationship” between faculty and graduate students.

On Friday, administrators C. Cybele Raver and C. André Christie-Mizell sent a letter to graduate students criticizing the union's move.

“We believe unionization is antithetical to the core purpose of the Vanderbilt educational experience: to create a flexible, collaborative environment that fosters learning, discovery and innovation,” said the email, sent Friday morning. “Furthermore, we believe that graduate students do not meet the definition of 'employee' under the National Labor Relations Act. For these reasons, we believe that unionization is not well suited to meeting the diverse individual needs of our graduate students.”

The email promotes the Graduate Student Council, an elected body on campus, as a way to address student complaints. While direct graduate student scholarships this year range from $34,000 to $38,000, Vanderbilt administrators noted in the email a “comprehensive financial aid package” worth more than $75,000 annually.

“Honestly, that's pretty insulting – 'We think graduate students don't fit the definition of an employee' is ridiculous,” said one graduate student. Student preparing to defend his thesis tells the scene. “At least in STEM, we all do a certain amount of work to produce science that significantly benefits the university financially. TAs perform important tasks in many classes. I just don't understand how you can't call that 'employee.'

Students from all disciplines work in laboratories, conduct research for grants, and lead undergraduate courses.

The graduate students' efforts have already cost the university money. Days after a rally took place on campus School announced That would raise the annual student wage floor from $28,000 to $34,000, an immediate concession to union demands for higher wages. Vanderbilt also hired attorneys Jim Thelen, Brooke E. Niedecken and Kameron Miller of Littler Mendelson — known for representing employers' interests in unionization efforts — to lead the labor negotiations.

Vanderbilt did not immediately respond scenePlease comment. The UAW and GWU have not issued an official press release.