Why does CGSU want union shop?

Why is CGSU demanding a union shop?

CGSU insists that the only way to be an effective bargaining representative is to create a union shop, a system in which Cornell would require all graduate students to join a national union with a political agenda and activities they may or may not support. Should any grad student formally object to affiliating with UE or CGSU for any reason, they would forfeit all of their privileges to participate in union officer elections, contract ratification, and policy making, and still be forced to pay essentially the same dues to CGSU-UE. Union shop forces a choice on graduate students between supporting political activity that may violate their conscience and disenfranchisment in the very union business intended to protect them. Though curtailing the freedom of association to achieve economic benefits could make sense in some industries, academia isn't one of them.

Enough rhetoric, show us the evidence!

Supporting open shop (no compulsory membership) is not a vote to destroy our union, but a vote for proportional representation and the right to choose. Cornell is an academic institution first and foremost, differentiating us from all other unionized employees. We must not sacrifice academic freedom in pursuit of a better workplace.

CGSU presents a false dichotomy: powerful union shop or useless open shop. However, over half of all U.S. employees represented by unions in 2023 were protected by contracts without union or agency shop!
Before catastrophizing about Cornell's failure to honor the contract, hence the need for union shop, CGSU should first demonstrate that the contract is unenforceable without it. The conspicuous lack of discussion about union shop before the election and UE's potential grad school gold rush undermine CGSU-UE's credibility.

Until they can provide a detailed account of the alleged existential threat posed by an open shop which justifies their infringement on the freedom of students who don't wish to join, we conclude that the demand for union shop is nothing more than a cash grab by a broke national union and a power play by activist grad students.
We provide a breakdown of their case for union shop below:

“Union shop institutes fairness and power!”

It is unclear that using federal law created to protect factory workers and miners in order to strong arm your academic colleagues to join and pay for your political organization is fair, but union shop is absolutely about power: power over other grad students!

“Without union shop… we would spend all of our capacity signing up members... we would have less time to organize around real issues.”

Is persuading new grad students why they should join and pay for an ostensibly democratic organization that wants exclusive rights to represent them not a real issue?
This refusal to engage new graduate students and convince them to support the union before they must join should offend members and non-members alike!
CGSU-UE would simply prefer to contractually secure dues payments from new grads before those students even secure admission at Cornell.

"When you voted 'yes' for CGSU-UE, you voted for union shop."

You did no such thing! This claim is patently false as union shop agreements must be negotiated. Your vote to certify CGSU in November has no bearing at all on a union shop clause. CGSU was silent about union shop until months after the election, blindsiding many grads who supported unionization based on the original platform.

The platform circulated widely by email during the campaign makes no mention of union shop.

None of CGSU’s social media posts on Instagram and Twitter mention union shop until March 2024, months after the NLRB election.
Until the recent addition of the bargaining tracker, the CGSU website made no reference to a union shop.
This technique has a name: bait and switch.

"The choice is between a strong union and a weak union."

CGSU knows this isn't true because they told us so last year:

Their archived FAQ from June 2023 lists dozens of examples of benefits won by other graduate student unions. As of June 2023, none of those bargaining agreements contained a union shop clause for graduate research assistants.
On October 3, 2023, CGSU sent an email advertising four universities "where graduate students have won unions and negotiated strong contracts." They are Harvard, Columbia, Michigan, and NYU, none of which have a union shop for GRAs.
CGSU must stop lying about the threat that freedom of choice poses. It won't destroy the union's power. It's not about Cornell union busting. This about standing up for academic freedom which includes the right to choose our political affiliations and not have them imposed top down.

“They want us to start from scratch in our campaign every contract cycle, which undermines our collective bargaining power”

As long as the union maintains majority support, there is no starting from scratch. The union is secure until they lose majority support.

Any attempt to dismiss the obligation to earn their status as exclusive bargaining representative over new students, or claim that this duty undermines their power and rights is bogus!
Under federal law, unless 30% of the grad student in the bargaining unit agree to call for a decertification election, CGSU will be presumed to maintain majority support.
This means the only practical way to hold our union accountable is to award them power in direct proportion to the support they earn. As soon as our support can be taken for granted, we destroy any incentive to serve us better.

"to support our members and keep our organization strong..."

What are some of these expenses necessary for union power?

Travel to Pittsburgh to vote to endorse Bernie Sanders for President in 2019 in or simply to watch him give a speech on Zoom in 2023.
Contributions to the national UE strike fund, which replaces lost revenue to the UE general fund (Article 16, Section B) when the cash flow ceases due to a local strike.
Election endorsements for candidates in other states, testifying before Congress, and crafting profound policy positions such as demanding "the U.S. government invest in peace."
For CGSU officers specifically, paid leaves of absence for two contiguous semesters for 10 students on "union business" and 15 campus parking passes, because traversing campus on foot is how they undermine our power.

In reality, the vast majority of dues go straight into national UE's pockets.

According to the MIT grad union's data, of the $1.7 million going to UE headquarters, only 7% of the UE per capita goes to legal fees for locals, 17% to national governance, 19% to new unionization campaigns, and a full 50% for UE staffers.
If it's truly "for graduate students, by graduate students," why does CGSU need to pay the equivalent of more than 10 salaries to UE staff for its basic operations?

"... the dues of unionized workers across the country are being used to get CGSU to our first contract!"

If we play the tape forward, CGSU dues will obviously go to support future unionization efforts elsewhere.
On the right is a financial summary of existing UE locals representing electricians, factory workers, solid waste workers and manufacturing plant workers.
Clearly the dues revenue from Cornell grads would vastly exceed that of UE's current locals.
UE is not financially supporting CGSU because they are generous, they are making an investment!

UE_locals_finance_summary.pdf

“Our locally sourced dues go to us first, as per UE policy.”

It is not exactly clear what this means, but make no mistake: every month UE national and UE regional will collect over 70% of dues from Cornell grads.

“We can only maintain collective power...”

Though it's made to sound like a threat to the very existence of CGSU, an open shop would not in any way deny them their exclusive right to be at the bargaining table or diminish Cornell's legal obligation to bargain in good faith.

“It will be nearly impossible to secure in the future”

Without any plausible explanation provided, this scare tactic falls flat.
If we make it to our second contract with an open shop, we might be forced to conclude it wasn't the grave danger to union power we had once feared.

If you feel that a union shop is inappropriate for an academic setting, please sign our open letter to the Cornell Administration (you can remain anonymous). If you want to learn more about what's in it for UE, click here. We invite everyone with questions and comments to reach out to us.

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