Cornell United Against Union Shop

"Any person, any study... if you swear a loyalty oath to the union!" 

Read and sign our concise petition (you can sign anonymously) 

Cornell grad students, ask yourselves the following:

Do you know what union shop means or how it will affect you? 

Do you know why the Cornell graduate student union is demanding union shop? 

Do you know your union dues necessarily contribute to political activity?

Have you ever heard of UE or know why they receive the majority of your dues?

If union shop is so important, why did the union only mention it after the election?

If you can't answer these questions, you are not alone. See who we are and learn more about our concerns with CGSU-UE's union shop proposal. You should also check out our letter to grad students in the Cornell Daily Sun and the related letter to the editor Union Shop isn't Academic Freedom. 

What can we do about this?

If you are concerned by the union shop proposal, please join us in ensuring the union remains accountable to all graduate students and tell Cornell administrators not to sacrifice our academic freedom for their own convenience. 

Read and sign the letter below (you can sign anonymously): 

To whom it may concern,

We are writing on behalf of graduate students who are not members of CGSU, as well as CGSU members disappointed with the organization’s conduct, in order to ask that you do not grant them union shop or agency shop. We believe that it is unjust and unethical to require graduate students to be members of or pay fees to an organization that opposes our values.

Public sector union shops have already been completely banned on First Amendment grounds. As a private university, however, Cornell has the unilateral power to reject a union shop clause in our contract. As a consequence of certifying CGSU as our representative, it is now illegal for any graduate student to negotiate with the administration about this issue. As a result our only recourse is to make our position clear and demand protection for our freedom not to join the union.

There are many reasons that we object to the CGSU. In particular, we object to the pressure tactics employed by the CGSU to push students to vote in favor of unionizing. We object to the lack of anonymous voting within the union. We object to the union’s false claims to represent the interests of all graduate students. We object to the union’s lack of transparency. 

Many of us have concerns with CGSU’s sudden and unexplained decision to affiliate with UE. We are concerned that UE is financially irresponsible and unable to support graduate student workers. We suspect that UE is interested in Cornell for monetary gain instead of helping us improve working conditions. They stand to make around $1.5 million annually off the backs of Cornell’s graduate students, compared with their usual annual income of around $5 million.

We are also concerned with various radical political positions of UE, which do not represent the student body and could even harm some students’ research. This type of radicalization threatens Cornell’s free and open environment, where all can voice their opinions in public dialogue, or choose to remain silent. Adopting a union shop policy would necessitate that graduate students support the political stances of UE, which are not representative of the views of all or even most of the students. This seems to us to be at odds with Cornell’s strict policy preventing any employee, in their official capacity, from supporting any political cause or candidate.

We are interested in peace among the graduate student body. We want to focus on our research and not divisive politics. UE, on the other hand, is interested in aggressive political advocacy. Granting this union power over the student body will be detrimental to the long-term success of the graduate school. 

We believe it is self-evidently immoral and unjust to require graduate students to pay money to an organization involved in radical political activism which we do not support. Some of us are so deeply opposed that we would rather leave Cornell than be required to fund UE. CGSU must prove themselves capable of protecting and representing us if they want us to give them money.

Please remember as you negotiate with CGSU: They do not represent the whole student body. 

Signed,

1. Bailey Gong (food science department)

2. Baran Zadeoğlu (Mathematics)

3. Benjamin Gregory (Physics)

4. Briana Frank (Johnson Graduate School of Business)

5. Caroline Thompson (Biomedical Engineering)

6. Chad Pennington (physics department)

7. Cyrus Habas (Molecular Biology and Genetics) 

8. Daniel Sabey (Economics)

9. Danielle Markovich (Applied and Engineering Physics)

10. Derek A. Berman (Geological Sciences)

11. Elliot McGinnity Schneider (Plant Pathology & Plant Microbe Biology)

12. Louie Gold (Ecology & Evolutionary Biology)

13. Gonzalo Gonzalez (Computer Science)

14. Grace Genszler (Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering)

15. Isaac Broudy (math department)

16. Jason Manning (Engineering)

17. Jena Tools (Humanities)

18. Keri D’Angelo (Cornell Bowers CIS)

19. Majo Flor Ágreda (Sociology )

20. Mark Dalthorp (math department)

21. Michael Kaemingk  (Physics)

22. Peihong Liu (Nolan)

23. Russell Burgett

24. Shira Mingelgrin (statistics department)

25. Tomer Markovich (molecular biology and genetics)

26. Virginia McGhee (chemistry and chemical biology)

27. Willow Groundwater-Schuldt (German Studies)

28. Yael Eisenberg (math department)

29. Zhenzhong Xing (ECE)

30. Anonymous (Arts and Sciences)

31. Anonymous (Biomedical engineering)

32. Anonymous (Business)

33. Anonymous (Business)

34. Anonymous (CALS)

35. Anonymous (CAM)

36. Anonymous (center for applied mathematics)

37. Anonymous (Chemical Engineering)

38. Anonymous (College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

39. Anonymous (College of arts and sciences)

40. Anonymous (college of arts and sciences)

41. Anonymous (College of Business)

42. Anonymous (Communication)

43. Anonymous (Computer Science Department)

44. Anonymous (Computer Science)

45. Anonymous (Computer Science)

46. Anonymous (Ecology & Evolutionary Biology)

47. Anonymous (Electrical and Computer Engineering )

48. Anonymous (Engineering)

49. Anonymous (Johnson)

50. Anonymous (law)

51. Anonymous (Law)

52. Anonymous (Materials Science and Engineering)

53. Anonymous (math department)

54. Anonymous (math department)

55. Anonymous (math department)

56. Anonymous (math department) 

57. Anonymous (mathematics department)

58. Anonymous (MBA)

59. Anonymous (mechanical and aerospace engineering)

60. Anonymous (mechanical and aerospace engineering)

61. Anonymous (Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering)

62. Anonymous (Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering)

63. Anonymous (Microbiology)

64. Anonymous (Physics)

65. Anonymous (Plant Sciences)

66. Anonymous (Psychology)

67. Anonymous (SIPS, Horticulture)

68. Anonymous (SIPS, Horticulture)

69. Anonymous (Social Sciences)

70. Anonymous, Humanities

71. Anonymous, Humanities (or Arts and Sciences)

72. Anonymous

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(Note: Signers of this open letter are only voicing approval of the contents of the letter itself and are not endorsing any other content of this site.)