Union Politics

Fighting for better working conditions at Cornell should not be tied to a specific political agenda. However, by partnering with UE and bargaining for union shop, this is exactly what CGSU is doing. UE believes in an “aggressive struggle”, which means that they require members to actively support their policy positions, many of which are extreme and do not represent the views of the Cornell graduate student body as a whole. Their positions on international politics are especially far from mainstream, some of which include:

• UE blames NATO for the Russia-Ukraine war.

• UE wholeheartedly endorses the BDS (boycott, divest, and sanction) movement, which treats Israel as our enemy.

• UE supports the Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro and believes that he is legitimately elected.

• UE advocates for the withdrawal of US military support from Japan.

• UE can see no significant problems with the regimes in Cuba or in Iran.

In addition, UE is committed to a number of controversial partisan positions in the domestic sphere (including opposition to nuclear power) and they regularly endorse political candidates and support legislation. We certainly do not want to insinuate that we disagree with them on everything, but this is beside point. Regardless of one's feelings about any specific resolution of UE policy, even those students who support all of UE’s political stances ought to recognize that it is unethical to force other students to fund activism which is opposed to their values or harms their research and future career opportunities. 

We are concerned about protecting the environment. However, we recognize that the Green New Deal, endorsed by UE, excludes nuclear power. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who proposed the piece of legislation, has even stated the goal is to “transition away from nuclear energy.” Senator Bernie Sanders, a co-sponsor, goes even further to refer to nuclear, geoengineering, and carbon capture and sequestration as false solutions to meet the goal of 100 percent sustainable energy. UE policy is in opposition to research conducted in the departments of Applied and Engineering Physics, Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth and Atmospheric Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Union shop requires graduate students studying nuclear power, geoengineering, and carbon capture and sequestration to fund a group that disapproves of their research. 

UE policy also demands the US government reduce overall military spending, which includes research grants. This limits the number of funding opportunites available to science and engineering professors and graduate students through the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship Program and the Department of Defense SMART Scholarship. This reduction in military spending also impacts our science and engineering grad students after they’ve earned their Ph.D.’s and are looking for careers. UE admonishes the “long held practice of awarding lavish contracts to politically well-connected defense contractors.” While we certainly agree the misappropriation of funds and defrauding taxpayers are serious issues, we must point out the decision to contract out work to the private sector typically minimizes cost and completion time. Additionally, civilian defense employees are not listed as a group protected by UE’s call for reducing military spending. Civil servant roles are not limited to STEM, but also include translators, museum curators, and intelligence specialists. Graduate students from engineering to humanities are being asked to pay dues to an organization that wants to make it harder for them to have a career in the field they’ve been studying for years.

"We value free and open inquiry and expression—tenets that underlie academic freedom—even of ideas some may consider wrong or offensive. Inherent in this commitment is the corollary freedom to engage in reasoned opposition to messages to which one objects."

 – Cornell University Core Value of Free and Open Inquiry and Expression

How can we possibly engage in reasoned opposition to messages to which we object if Cornell mandates support for UE with our money and our membership? To require graduate students to endorse and financially support activism of this kind would turn Cornell’s Universal Policy 4.18 on Political Campaign Activity completely on its head. As long as CGSU is affiliated with UE, they cannot claim to represent all students. The students of Cornell are a diverse student body holding many different political views, and it is wholly inappropriate to pretend that pushing a political agenda in international or domestic politics is compatible with our founding principle, "any person, any study," or is necessary for CGSU's mission to win economic benefits for grad students, to improve our workplace, and, ironically, to defend our academic freedom.  

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 CGSU, click here. We invite everyone with questions and comments to reach out to us.