4/19/2005

No new union at the University of Minnesota

University of Minnesota grad students have rejected a union, again. This may have largely been due to efforts of the anti-union kids at Truth About Unionization [sic], which is dominated entirely by relatively well-paid chemistry and chemical engineering grad students. It's a frustrating day, but props to the had-working folks at GradTRAC for all their thankless efforts to get an enormous group of U. workers organized.

1 Comments:

At 2:21 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm a pro-labor lefty. I'm a UMN staff member. I deal with graduate salary & appointment issues regularly. The defeat of the union is a good thing. I'm not against organizing, but I am against impracticality. The one-size-fits-all model does not work with how graduate salaries are funded. I'd support other legit methods of improving the terms for aggrieved CLA grad students. But the union's promise of a high tide was not going to raise all ships. GradTrac also made promises regarding fees, health insurance and advisor relations that it would never be able to deliver. There was a degree of fantasy involved on this whole debate.

 

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