Cornell University and the Cornell Association of Student Employees/UAW (CASE/UAW) reached agreements July 11 that will allow a union representation election for the university's approximately 2,000 teaching assistants, research assistants, graduate research assistants and graduate assistants. The agreements define the bargaining unit, set dates for the National Labor Relations Board-administered election and recognize that certain academic issues lie outside the scope of bargaining. The union and the university also agreed to procedures to be followed by both parties in the event that there are subsequent NLRB rulings that revise the present interpretation of the status of graduate student assistants as employees.
Under the terms of the agreement, the proposed bargaining unit will include graduate research assistants, research assistants, teaching assistants and graduate assistants who are graduate degree program students under the jurisdiction of the Graduate School and who receive a stipend and at least a 25 percent tuition remission from the university. Other individuals and employees are expressly excluded from the proposed bargaining unit.
The date of the proposed representation election was tentatively set for Oct. 23 and 24, 2002.
Mary G. Opperman, vice president for human resources at Cornell, commented that "the agreement avoids a long and expensive series of administrative hearings to determine the scope of the proposed bargaining unit. It sets forth an orderly procedure for the conduct of an open representation election in October, and the university pledges to take all necessary steps to promote full and fair debate of all issues related to the election. I should emphasize that the university administration reserves its right during the course of the representation campaign to speak directly to the appropriateness of union representation for the designated graduate students."
Ariana Vigil, a teaching assistant in the English department and a member of the CASE/UAW organizing committee, expressed satisfaction with the agreement. "We fought successfully to secure the right of Cornell teaching and research assistants to choose to be represented by CASE/UAW," said Vigil. "As a union, we can improve our wages, hours and terms and conditions of employment. Today's agreement gives us the opportunity to focus our attention on the coming representation election rather than on protracted and unnecessary legal hearings. This agreement is historic. It is the first time a private university has agreed to abide by the results of an NLRB union representation election. We are pleased that the university has agreed to bargain immediately in good faith with the CASE/UAW if we win the election."
Service and maintenance workers at Cornell are members of UAW, Local 2300. The UAW also represents over 15,000 teaching assistants and research assistants at the University of California-Berkeley and -Los Angeles, New York University and the University of Massachusetts. Appeals are pending regarding UAW-affiliated teaching assistant and research assistant elections at Brown, Columbia and Tufts universities.
For the text of the agreement and the Stipulated Election Agreement, see this web site: www.news.cornell.edu/releases/July02/CU.CASE.UAW.hnd.html.
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