Kirkland Hall at Vanderbilt University. (Photo: John Partipilo)
A bargaining unit of 2,200 Vanderbilt graduate students filed an election request with the National Labor Relations Board October 2, organizing in partnership with United Auto Workers. The move comes months after students collected around 1,000 signatures calling for higher pay and would, according to the filing, impact all graduate student employees who provide instructional, research or administrative services.
Organizers Nick Goodell, an instructor and a fifth year student in the history department, and Jade Miller, a research assistant and fourth year graduate worker in the pharmacology program, say workers are unionizing for multiple reasons and that any demands about higher stipends, better benefits and protections against discrimination will be decided democratically among the unit. Based on conversations with the group, Miller said guaranteed annual raises are a top priority because the cost of living in Nashville is so high. She said this is particularly important for international graduate workers on visas, who are not legally allowed to have any other form of income.
(Vanderbilt) is a prestigious university, but prestige doesn’t pay the bills.
– Jade Miller, Vanderbilt research assistant
Miller said graduate students in some departments are heavily encouraged not to have other forms of employment, but that it often isn’t possible. Goodell said he worked a side job at the university archives and saved for a year to be able to afford his wisdom teeth extraction surgery, while Miller said the need to hold down multiple jobs can wear graduate workers thin.
“The stipend we make just doesn’t go that far,” Miller said. “A lot of people have a second or third source of income. This is the thing you’re supposed to be doing but your mind can’t focus fully on your work.”
The move comes amid a wave of unionization efforts by graduate students at other institutes of higher education. The United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America is now representing students at universities including Dartmouth College, John Hopkins University,New Mexico State University and Stanford, while Duke University graduate workers are affiliated with the Southern Region Workers United Service Employees International Union (SEIU.)
Both the Vanderbilt organizers say they are happy to work in collaboration with UAW, which represents around 100,000 graduate workers at universities including Harvard, Columbia, and the University of California system.
The Vanderbilt administration says graduate workers are not employees, and criticized efforts to form a union. The Vanderbilt Graduate School posted a page online titled, “Union Facts,” saying an elected graduate student council as a better place to resolve grievances and make bargaining requests, and an email statement from the school said organizing would harm the mentor-mentee relationship between faculty and students.
“Our position is that graduate students are students,” the university’s statement said. “Specifically, we believe that graduate students do not meet the definition of employee under the National Labor Relations Act, as their activities are not performed in exchange for compensation but are integral to their education as future scholars and researchers. We are committed to helping our graduate students further their education and to supporting them while they do so.”
In 2016, the NLRB ruled that graduate workers at private universities are employees and have the right to collective bargaining. Goodell said graduate workers provide research, administrative work and teaching that keeps the university going, and Miller said statements by university officials to the contrary are purposefully misleading.
“Not only is it incorrect, it’s not a very nice thing to do,” Miller said. “They’re releasing these statements to block our attempts to unionize, to convince grad workers they aren’t workers. That’s a dishonest way to be. It’s already established in the law.”
Goodell and Miller said the ball is now in Vanderbilt’s court, which could choose to voluntarily recognize the union at any time. On October 3, Vanderbilt lawyers filed a motion with the NLRB requesting a delay in procedure, stating that the university would need more time to prepare for the proposed hearing on October 10. Still, grad workers hope to move forward quickly. Goodell said the action is needed to create a living wage for students, who shoulder ever-increasing costs despite being grateful to attend a respected institution.
“It is a prestigious university, but prestige doesn’t pay the bills,” Goodell said.
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