Vanderbilt University graduate students filed with the National Labor Relations Board on Wednesday to hold a union election, a move that signals confidence from organizers who have been shoring up support on campus for more than a year.
Within 24 hours, Vanderbilt’s lawyers filed a motion to slow down the process, arguing that a scheduled Oct. 10 hearing by the NLRB did not provide the school enough time to prepare its response. The NLRB filing estimates the campus bargaining unit — the total number of eligible employees included in these negotiations — at 2,200, including “all graduate students and employees enrolled at Vanderbilt University who provide teaching services, research services, or administrative services, regardless of funding source.” “To win a union, a simple majority of the bargaining unit must vote in favor.
Universities across the country have seen a boom in campus unionization over the past few years.
Organizers collect authorization cards, the first step toward voting on official recognition
Vanderbilt organizers reported in February that they had collected hundreds of union license cards from colleagues, a typical first step in building support. National labor giant United Auto Workers of America helped guide the on-campus group Vanderbilt Graduate Workers United through the legal and practical work of forming a union. The NLRB opened the labor case on October 2.
The university has intensified its anti-union messaging in recent months. The school’s web page titled “Union Facts” presents arguments against unionization. While petitioners’ case is based on how graduate students work as employees, the school emphasizes campus work as educational and describes a “mentor-mentee relationship” between faculty and graduate students.
On Friday, administrators C. Cybele Raver and C. André Christie-Mizell wrote a letter to graduate students criticizing the union’s campaign.
“We believe that unionization is inconsistent with the core purpose of the Vanderbilt educational experience: to provide a flexible, collaborative environment in which learning, discovery and innovation are nurtured,” the email sent Friday morning said. “Furthermore, we believe that graduate students do not meet the definition of ’employee’ under the National Labor Relations Act. For these reasons, it is our position that unionization is not well suited to meet 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 doctoral salaries this year range from $34,000 to $38,000, Vanderbilt officials cited a “comprehensive financial aid package” worth more than $75,000 per year in the email.
Salaries at Peabody will rise to at least $34,000 amid a unionization push on campus
“It’s very offensive stuff, frankly — ‘We think graduate students don’t meet the definition of employee’ is ridiculous,” said one Ph.D. A student preparing to defend his thesis says to the scene. “At least in STEM, we all do some amount of work to produce science that greatly benefits the university financially. TAs do critical work for many classes. I don’t understand how you can consider that not an ’employee.’
Students work in various disciplines in laboratories, produce research for grants, and facilitate undergraduate study.
The graduate students’ efforts have already cost the university money. Days after an on-campus rally, the school announced it would increase the annual minimum wage for students from $28,000 to $34,000, an immediate concession to union demands for higher wages. Vanderbilt also tapped attorneys Jim Thelen, Brooke E. Niedeken and Cameron Miller at Littler Mendelson — known for representing employers’ interests in unionization attempts — to lead labor negotiations.
Vanderbilt did not immediately respond to The Scene’s request for comment. The UAW and GWU have not issued an official press release.
