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The Tufts Daily
Where you read it first | Thursday, March 28, 2024

Graduate student unions: who would they represent?

In a Daily Viewpoint that I wrote on Dec. 6 entitled "Graduate Student Unions - The voice of many, or the voice of a few?", I wrote my feelings about why I felt a graduate student union would be harmful to Tufts University and especially to graduate students. In Tuesday's Daily, Carl Martin attacked my position and made comments directed at me personally.

Mr. Martin said that my opinions are "wrong," that my "response is empty," and that I'm demonstrating "apathy" to those who need to unionize. If the union that Mr. Martin is forcing onto the graduate student body will be as close-minded and intolerant of opposing viewpoints, then I am certain this union will not represent my views as a graduate student. If the union is unable to understand or represent my viewpoints as a graduate student, how can I believe they will be able to work with the administration? Is the union Mr. Martin's way or the highway? Is that the representation that we would like at Tufts? I don't think so.

Mr. Martin has not offered any concrete evidence to differentiate the graduate student experience here from other universities of our caliber. The Association of Student Employees at Tufts (ASET) has not provided any information to demonstrate that the graduate student situation at Tufts is below that of comparable institutions. If you cannot provide precedent, how do you expect to convince people of your position? What specific efforts have been made by ASET to achieve change by working with the administration? If it is so bad here, why did Mr. Martin choose to come here? If Mr. Martin would spend his time working with the administration rather than against it, maybe we could find solutions together. As I see it, all he is offering now is more problems.

The pro-union propaganda is gut-wrenching. It tugs at the heartstrings and says we need a unified voice. The union deals with emotion, and these certainly can be emotional issues. I would also like to deal with facts. Here are a few excerpts from the Martin/ASET web page from a poll taken at other universities with unions. "Professors did express concern about the increased labor costs caused by collective bargaining. Contracts that call for better wages for graduate students could eat into university resources that might otherwise be spent on research. Unions also generate more bureaucratic paperwork.... That's something overworked professors worry about, respondents said."

More bureaucratic paperwork. Is that what we want from a union? Since graduate student stipends are determined by individual departments, each department will have to re-allocate their own funds to make room for increased stipends. There is a definite chance that with limited funds, as universities are non-profit, departments may reduce the number of graduate students. There is precedent for this graduate student enrollment decrease.

Since union inception in 1992, graduate positions at the University of Kansas have decreased by 956 students. At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the graduate student union was started in 1990, and since that time, the graduate student population has decreased by 934 students. Both of these cases cite the increasing cost imposed by graduate student unions as the reason for decreased enrollment. Keep in mind that there are approximately 30 universities with graduate programs in the nation, and this is just from two of them. These figures were taken directly from the University of Kansas Office of Institutional Research, and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst Graduate School Fact Book (http://students.washington.edu/ gsicu/GSICU-facts-6-1-01.htm). Will a union "strengthen the University" when it actually provides less opportunity for those looking to further their education? If having a union at Tufts University means higher wages but fewer graduate students, then I don't want a union here.

The ASET web page also mentions that of faculty surveyed from universities with graduate student unions, only 10% felt that their ability to advise graduate students was inhibited. Tufts University has over 300 full time faculty members. If ten percent of our faculty advise an average of five graduate students, that would be 150 students who are negatively impacted by the formation of a union. What ever happened to making sure we don't leave anyone behind? I have a fellow graduate student in my department who received her master's degree from Michigan State University, and she has seen the negative impact of a union firsthand. I don't want that to happen here at Tufts.

Mr. Martin's retort says he deserves a higher salary and more benefits, portraying himself as a mistreated minimum wage worker with no other options. This reminds me of the Tufts One-Source staff. I supported the recent salary increase for the One-Source staff that were making minimum wage and needed a raise. But this is different. The reason the minimum wage-earning janitorial staff comes to campus is to work. Mr. Martin and his fellow pro-union shop come here to learn. They come here for an educational degree and for personal advancement. Mr. Martin and I may have a few things in common though: we both have bachelor's degrees, and both chose Tufts for graduate work. I have student loans from my graduate and undergraduate education. I would love to not have student loans, but I am against a union.

Since its inception, the pro-union movement has not sent its flyers, e-mails, or other information to all graduate students. I personally haven't received any of the pro-union propaganda. Once I made my position clear, I must have been removed from the pro-union mailing list. I have to get my information from other graduate students. Even if the pro-union shop won't include me in it's mailings, I am sure its union will accept my annual dues. I wonder how much union dues I will pay towards a union that won't tolerate my opinion, or enlighten me to its progress. This is not why I applied and accepted a graduate position at Tufts.

I would like to stress to all graduate students on the Medford/Somerville campus that, whether for or against graduate student unions, it is important for each of us to be familiar on graduate student unions and to vote. For a union to be accepted, a majority of the votes cast is needed, not a majority of all graduate students. What is certain is that if a union is accepted, all graduate students in the bargaining unit will be bound by its actions, whether you voted or not. I encourage everyone to check out the following web pages (http://tuftsgrads.org/, http://www.geocities.com/whut-01/, http://www.tufts.edu/source/gradunion), put forth by the pro-graduate student union efforts, anti-graduate student union efforts, and the Tufts University administration, respectively. There are some positive aspects to unions, but after learning about grad unions at other institutions, I wholeheartedly believe that a union at Tufts will be detrimental to the graduate student body.

Jason Epstein is a student at Tufts' Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.