What you need to know before voting

April 3, 2022
Melissa Nobles, Chancellor | Ian A. Waitz, Vice Chancellor for Undergraduate and Graduate Education |

Highlights

  • Voting will take place in Walker Memorial (Building 50) on both Monday and Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., 2:30 to 3:30 p.m., and 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.
  • MIT, the UE, and the MIT GSU will NOT know how you vote: This is an independent, secret-ballot election run by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
  • Per NLRB policies, you will need to wear a mask while voting, and only in-person voting is allowed: The NLRB has not permitted absentee voting in this election.
  • This election will be determined by a simple majority of those who vote; it does not require support from a majority of the 3,800 graduate students who are eligible to vote. But if the UE wins, all students in the proposed bargaining unit will be represented by it.

To MIT graduate students:

This Monday and Tuesday, we hope that all eligible voters will cast ballots on this question: “Do you wish to be represented by the United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America (UE) for the purposes of collective bargaining?

Whatever the outcome of this election, all of us who lead MIT will continue to support you: We want you to thrive during your time here. Over the past five years, our partnerships with you have led to substantial gains for all MIT graduate students, including:

  • Greater financial security: MIT’s student-led process has delivered higher stipends than those at all nine private universities with graduate student unions.
  • Support for your health and wellness: MIT Medical offers robust health and dental insurance, with health insurance premiums that are on par with or less than those at our peers.
  • Protection for international students: MIT’s actions helped its international students weather the pandemic, and protected them from shifting federal immigration policies.
  • Unity and growth: MIT has worked to build a more inclusive, supportive, and diverse community; fight harassment; and foster students’ personal and professional growth.

Your decision now is whether to exchange the process that led to these improvements, and many others, for a new approach rooted in labor bargaining. But beyond gains on stipends — an area where MIT is already a leader — graduate student unions at peer institutions have failed to deliver on many key campaign promises or demands, despite lengthy negotiations and multiple strikes. For example, at both Harvard and Columbia, unions made promises on graduate housing and support for international students. But because there are limits in applying a labor relations process to a graduate student body, newly ratified contracts at both Harvard and Columbia have provided few gains on these important issues.

Unionization and affiliation with the UE — which now represents graduate students at only one university, the University of Iowa — could also carry risks and costs for MIT students:

  • The risk of strikes and slow progress: Columbia’s graduate student union took more than five years to reach a first contract, with students spending a total of 132 days on strike — an approach that UE policy calls “the primary weapon against the employer.”
  • Continued UE pressure on students: Some of you have reported facing pressure from UE supporters, both inside and outside MIT, during this campaign; such behavior may persist even after a union is in place.
  • Costly union dues: Union members may pay UE dues of up to $550 per year, without any guarantee of better benefits or compensation. And like the graduate student unions at Harvard and Columbia, the UE would likely demand a contract provision requiring all members of the bargaining unit to pay dues or fees to the UE.
  • A new political entity on campus: The UE is a national organization with its own political and financial interests, and can use member dues to advance these interests. MIT students have raised concerns about the UE’s policy positions on topics such as nuclear power and U.S. support of Ukraine and Israel. Students have also questioned the UE’s finances, as well as MIT’s voting power within the national organization.
  • The UE will impact student-advisor relationshipsthe vast majority of which are positive. A number of faculty have shared their reservations publicly: “I see a graduate student union as a mechanism for opposition between students and MIT,” one wrote. “If we are opponents, then how do we continue to be full-on collaborators?”

With this information in hand, consider how you would answer these questions:

Has the UE made the case that you are better off exchanging MIT’s track record of real successes on behalf of all of its graduate students for the campaign promises of a national union that has almost no experience working with universities?

Has the UE provided sufficient, rigorous evidence to support its claims?

Does the UE share your values? A vote for the UE is a vote in support of their policies.

And finally, the question you will be asked when you vote — the one with lasting implications for current and future graduate students, since unions don’t stand for re-election: Do you wish to be represented by the UE for the purposes of collective bargaining?

We thank you for your attention to our messages during this campaign. We urge you to vote this week, whether you support or oppose the union. And whatever the outcome, we look forward to continuing to work with you, and your student representatives, in support of your education at MIT.

Sincerely,

Melissa Nobles
Chancellor

Ian A. Waitz
Vice Chancellor for Undergraduate and Graduate Education