Catherwood LibraryILR School

In a workplace issues story particularly close to home for all of us here at the ILR School, graduate students employed by the university began voting at 9:00AM this morning on whether or not they want to make the Cornell Association of Student Employees/United Auto Workers (CASE/UAW) their union. The National Labor Relations Board election will continue tomorrow between 10:00AM and 7:00PM at the International Lounge in Willard Straight Hall and Mann Library, with all graduate students who receive a stipend and at least twenty-five percent tuition remission for their work as graduate researchers or teaching assistants eligible. Approximately 2,320 graduate students are included in the bargaining unit and are eligible to vote on whether they want to become the members and officers of this local affiliate of the UAW---which represents forty-six percent of unionized grad students nationwide---and bargain over wages, benefits, and other terms and conditions of employment with the university.