[ Graduate students across three Hopkins campuses voted in a
union. Out of 3,335 NLRB-registered voters, 2,053 voted yes and 67
voted no, resulting in a 97% majority and 64% turnout rate.]
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GRADUATE STUDENTS VOTE TO UNIONIZE WITH A 97% MAJORITY  
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Jiayi Li
February 1, 2023
John Hopkins News-Letter
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_ Graduate students across three Hopkins campuses voted in a union.
Out of 3,335 NLRB-registered voters, 2,053 voted yes and 67 voted no,
resulting in a 97% majority and 64% turnout rate. _

,

 

Graduate students across three Hopkins campuses voted in a union
representation election, facilitated by the National Labor Relations
Board (NLRB), on Jan. 30 and 31. The election was organized
by Teachers and Researchers United
[[link removed]] (TRU), which is affiliated
with United Electrical Radio, and Machine Workers (UE)
[[link removed]]. The vote overwhelmingly favored
unionization [[link removed]] — out of 3,335 NLRB-registered
voters, 2,053 voted yes and 67 voted no, resulting in a 97% majority
and 64% turnout rate
[[link removed]].

According to TRU-UE
[[link removed]],
the majority of graduate students signed cards calling for an
election
[[link removed]],
with over 2,000 cards submitted
[[link removed]] to the
NLRB in total. The two-day election took place in Homewood, East
Baltimore and Washington, D.C. campuses.

In an email to the community, Provost Sunil Kumar and Vice Provost for
Graduate and Professional Education Nancy Kass wrote that they were
looking forward to negotiating a bargaining agreement over the coming
weeks.

“As the birthplace of doctoral education in America, we recognize
this as an opportunity to ensure JHU continues to build on its legacy
of not only providing world-class doctoral education and training but
developing innovative new approaches to supporting our [doctoral]
students in achieving personal and professional success,” they
wrote. 

TRU-UE’s platform includes a livable wage, guaranteed on-time
payments, improved support and protection for international students,
safe and reliable transportation and facilities, fair grievance
procedures and a commitment to Baltimore.

In an email to _The News-Letter_, Kory Gaines, a second-year doctoral
student in the Political Science department and an organizer for
TRU-UE, highlighted the importance of a living wage for graduate
student workers. 

“All graduate students feel the overwork to some degree, and we
ought to be compensated for being the workforce of the university,”
they wrote. 

Andrew Eneim, a TRU-UE Coordinating Committee member and doctoral
candidate in the Biochemistry, Cellular and Molecular Biology Program,
shared obstacles to forming a union that graduate students faced in an
email to _The News-Letter_.

“By far one of the largest obstacles has been re-building the real,
human connections that grad students have lacked since the start of
the COVID-19 pandemic,“ he wrote. “We got used to not being
comfortable talking to our coworkers and building community with each
other.”

According to Eneim, rebuilding connections with coworkers has been a
rewarding experience for graduate students. It has also allowed them
to come together as a collective and call for action from the
University.

TRU was formed in September 2014
[[link removed]] following the
implementation of the Strategic Plan
[[link removed]].
Since then, TRU has organized campaigns
[[link removed]] on issues including
healthcare provision, retaining the Humanities Center and COVID-19
relief for University graduate student workers. TRU became affiliated
with UE in October 2021.

Rothin Datta, a TRU-UE departmental organizer for Political Science
and a doctoral candidate at the University, expressed his outlook on
the graduate workers’ union in an email to _The News-Letter_.

“[Hopkins] graduate workers are looking for the opportunity to
collectively bargain for fair compensation and better working
conditions,” he wrote. “We are keen to be a part of the broader
labor movement — a movement that is oriented towards creating more
just workplaces and reclaiming worker power.”

Datta highlighted the impact of forming a union of graduate students.

“There has been a lot of institutional opposition to a variety of
graduate student demands for several years,“ he wrote. “We’re
excited to have a union that will better represent our needs.”

This comes as part of a broader trend among peer institutions.
At Northwestern
[[link removed]] University
[[link removed]] and Yale
[[link removed]]University
[[link removed]],
graduate students have recently voted to form labor unions, while at
the University of Chicago [[link removed]], union elections
are underway.

Eneim shared his outlook on future negotiations with the University.

“We look forward to negotiating a contract that meets the needs of
grad student workers. At the bargaining table we will be treated as
equals and this will greatly improve the graduate worker experience at
[the University],“ he said. “We know that to date we have not been
made a priority and we plan to negotiate a contract that demonstrates
graduate workers are a priority and deserve to be treated as such,”
he wrote.

_Shirlene John contributed reporting to this article. _

* John Hopkins University
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*  Teachers and Researchers United
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* United Electrical Workers Union
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