SECOND DEGREE: United We Stand?

In Order To FormIn Order To FormA More Perfect Union? Calls for the unionization of graduate students can be heard on university campuses across the nation from Yale University to the University of Kansas. But these cries are barely whispers on Locust Walk. "People know it's happening [at Yale] but no one is really talking about it here," Graduate Students Activities Council President Bronwyn Beistle said. University administrators have never been officially approached by a graduate student organization that is pro-union, according to Vice Provost for Graduate Education Janice Madden. "There's no right to organize," Madden added. "They're not employees of the University." University President Judith Rodin said she definitely opposes unionization of graduate students. "I believe that graduate students are fundamentally students and that being a teaching assistant is part of the training for being a PhD," she said. Whether graduate students are employees is the central issue when there is talk of unionization. And although at the University few have vocally protested that their non-employee status, many graduate students said they feel that they are employees without employee benefits. "I think a lot of hardworking TAs are frustrated at times that they don't get full recognition for their contribution to the University," said Victor Prince, Graduate and Professional Students Association chairperson. All graduate students must have health insurance according to state law, and since they are not University employees, the University is not obligated to pay their premiums. "Because most graduate students are on very limited budgets, rising health care costs are a big issue," Prince said. According to English graduate student Julie Crawford, students pay close to $1,000 for health benefits each year -- about 10 percent of their salaries. But health benefits are sometimes covered, depending on which department a graduate student is working in and in what capacity. Madden said that if the University did pay health care premiums for all graduate students, then the salaries would decrease and the number of students employed would drop. This is partly why unionized students have less benefits, she added. GSAC has examined the issue of health benefits but has not taken any action on it. "Historically, GSAC has not been able to hold down the level of insurance premiums or get the benefits that graduate students want," Beistle said. "But we'll continue to work on this issue in the future." Aside from the health care issue, graduate students at the University are concerned about having to pay taxes. Currently, all students who work for the University are required to pay a city employee wage tax because, unlike the University, the city recognizes them as employees. But they are exempt from Social Security taxes and they do not have to pay taxes on their fellowships, Madden said. GSAC is trying to solve that problem by lobbying the City Council to amend the tax law, thereby exempting graduate students from the wage tax, Beistle said. Yale graduate students are also grappling with these issues and are forcing Yale administrators to listen to their concerns. Yale TAs went on strike during the first week in April, demanding that the administration recognize the Graduate Employees and Students Organization as a labor union and that they address several of the TAs grievances -- low pay, lack of job security and poor health benefits. While on strike, Yale graduate students voted strongly in favor of having GESO represent them in collective bargaining with the administration. But Yale officials refuse to recognize any union of TAs because such a union would be comprised of mostly students. GESO does have the support of Local 34 and 35, two official unions on campus, but is not supported by the National Relations Labor Board because Yale is a private institution. "We in the Graduate School continue to feel simply that unionization is not an appropriate route for GESO people to take," said Yale Graduate School Dean Thomas Appelquist at a Yale College Council meeting last week. During the strike, Yale President Richard Levin said he would rather shut down the school before negotiating with GESO, according to the Yale Daily News. Rodin sided with Levin on this issue during her tenure at Yale as dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and as provost. Graduate students at the University said they are sympathetic to the Yale graduate students' fight. "I understand their position and I think Yale University needs to respond to their demands and they haven't," said Katie Conrad, a fifth-year English doctoral student. Like their Yale counterparts, University graduate students feel that their work often goes un-noticed and unappreciated. "We don't get any perks and we are overworked and underpaid," Crawford said. "That's something that graduate students everywhere can sympathize with." Yale is not the only school that is dealing with unionization issues. Seventy percent of TAs at the University of Kansas voted in favor of unionization last week. Since the University of Kansas is a public institution, teaching assistants are granted certain federal and state rights. The Kansas Public Relations Act states that public employees are allowed to engage in collective bargaining if at least 30 percent of the population votes in favor of unionization at an election. The University, a private institution, is not required by any federal laws to recognize a graduate students union. But graduate students have not formed any kind of cohesive unionization movement partly because of the diversity of the graduate student population: Not all graduate students are teaching assistants or research fellows. And the salaries of these positions are funded from various sources -- from federal research grants to funds allocated through an individual department. As a result, many graduate students who do have employee benefits do not want to risk losing them by trying to create a graduate student labor union. Beistle did bring the issue to GSAC's attention since she had heard graduate students discussing unionization. However, due to lack of consensus and interest, the issue was never pursued whole-heartedly. Unionization also may not be the best route to take since there are other alternatives to solving graduate student grievances, Prince said. But there have been attempts at unionization in the past. In the late 1980s, graduate students considered creating a graduate union but nothing was accomplished. The graduate students did, however, create "Class in the Grass," an annual event in which TAs teach their classes outside on College Green to demonstrate the importance of graduate students to the University. Two years ago, graduate students met to discuss various ways to improve their situation at the University in response to a previous Yale TA strike. But again, unionization remained only talk among a few concerned students. According to Madden, the Vice Provost's office and other University offices are concerned with graduate student issues, but are trying to maintain an environment where students will not need unionization. Currently, two organizations exist on campus that aid graduate students in their grievances -- GSAC and GAPSA. According to Prince, GSAC would probably take a more significant role in any unionization process than GAPSA. "It represents graduate students on issues specific to TAs and PhD students, while GAPSA represents both graduate and professional students on a much wider range of issues," Prince said. Although graduate students know these organizations exist in the University's student government system, they have not felt strongly enough about unionization to act on the issue. But Beistle said the employee status of graduate students needs to be clearly defined. "It needs to be one way or another," Beistle said.