The union election for graduate employees at the University of Minnesota should take place by the end April, according to the state Bureau of Mediation Services.
That target date ? before the end of this academic year ? is exactly what union organizers for GradTRAC/UE Local 1105 are counting on. "Our approach is to do it quick and do it hard," said organizer Leanna Noble.
That's a lesson learned from the last time graduate employees tried to unionize at the university.
In 1999, under the name Graduate Student Organizing Congress, or GradSOC, they attempted to join the American Federation of Teachers. But as the union campaign spilled over two academic years, Noble said, momentum deteriorated. The long lead time also gave university administrators too much opportunity to run their anti-union campaign, she said.
The graduate employees lost that election 1,713 to 1,248.
A previous organizing attempt, in 1990, also under the GradSOC name, also went down in defeat ? by an even more lopsided vote of 1,810 to 855.
Building for the future
This time, Noble said, graduate employees are prepared for administration counter-tactics.
By studying the 1999 campaign, and witnessing the administration's behavior during the AFSCME Local 3800 strike in 2003, "people are clear now that the administration is an employer," Noble said. "Folks get it. The university is much more than the administration."
In addition, this year's organizing campaign is a ground-up effort, she said. Organizers are taking on various duties within their academic department, their building, on the three campuses, or even as a "mobile task force" among international students.
It's a lot of one-on-one contact, hand-delivery of fliers, phone trees, and organized visits in departments, studios and student housing, said Julia Musha, an international student and teaching assistant in the English department. "It?s really people involved in different levels."
"You're talking hundreds of people," Noble said. "This is a huge bargaining unit. There's no way that staff, for example, could do this.? The kind of structure that's being built in the course of the campaign is very deliberately the kind that would then evolve into an ongoing union structure once the election?s been won."
An election of this size will take time to coordinate, but likely will be completed by the end of April, said Josh Tilsen, of the Bureau of Mediation Services. "We need to do this while all the eligible voters are still on campus and school is still in session," he said.
State law already defines the bargaining unit, which eliminates one area of conflict and delay. Next, it's a matter of verifying the union petition and getting the union and university to sign off on the list of eligible voters, Tilsen said. It also must be decided whether the election will be on site or by mail ballot, he said.
Adapted from The Union Advocate, the official newspaper of the St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly. E-mail The Advocate at: advocate@mtn.org
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The union election for graduate employees at the University of Minnesota should take place by the end April, according to the state Bureau of Mediation Services.
That target date ? before the end of this academic year ? is exactly what union organizers for GradTRAC/UE Local 1105 are counting on. “Our approach is to do it quick and do it hard,” said organizer Leanna Noble.
That’s a lesson learned from the last time graduate employees tried to unionize at the university.
In 1999, under the name Graduate Student Organizing Congress, or GradSOC, they attempted to join the American Federation of Teachers. But as the union campaign spilled over two academic years, Noble said, momentum deteriorated. The long lead time also gave university administrators too much opportunity to run their anti-union campaign, she said.
The graduate employees lost that election 1,713 to 1,248.
A previous organizing attempt, in 1990, also under the GradSOC name, also went down in defeat ? by an even more lopsided vote of 1,810 to 855.
Building for the future
This time, Noble said, graduate employees are prepared for administration counter-tactics.
By studying the 1999 campaign, and witnessing the administration’s behavior during the AFSCME Local 3800 strike in 2003, “people are clear now that the administration is an employer,” Noble said. “Folks get it. The university is much more than the administration.”
In addition, this year’s organizing campaign is a ground-up effort, she said. Organizers are taking on various duties within their academic department, their building, on the three campuses, or even as a “mobile task force” among international students.
It’s a lot of one-on-one contact, hand-delivery of fliers, phone trees, and organized visits in departments, studios and student housing, said Julia Musha, an international student and teaching assistant in the English department. “It?s really people involved in different levels.”
“You’re talking hundreds of people,” Noble said. “This is a huge bargaining unit. There’s no way that staff, for example, could do this.? The kind of structure that’s being built in the course of the campaign is very deliberately the kind that would then evolve into an ongoing union structure once the election?s been won.”
An election of this size will take time to coordinate, but likely will be completed by the end of April, said Josh Tilsen, of the Bureau of Mediation Services. “We need to do this while all the eligible voters are still on campus and school is still in session,” he said.
State law already defines the bargaining unit, which eliminates one area of conflict and delay. Next, it’s a matter of verifying the union petition and getting the union and university to sign off on the list of eligible voters, Tilsen said. It also must be decided whether the election will be on site or by mail ballot, he said.
Adapted from The Union Advocate, the official newspaper of the St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly. E-mail The Advocate at: advocate@mtn.org