Unionization, especially academic workers' unionization, and double-especially junior, untenured researcher unionization is ultra-important.
The recent couple of centuries, especially the last one, have brought an increased application of commercial-corporation-type relations into academia, with graduate researchers and teachers being the object of degradation of both material welfare and intra-academic status. I wrote about this when I was involved in unionizing grads in my own university - not in the US, but still:
I wish the MIT grads all the best in their struggle. However, when looking at their "Path to unionization" page: https://mitgsu.org/roadmap , I am worried they are too timid of an endeavor. They write:
> The real goal of the campaign is to secure a union contract
A contract is never the goal. Just like signing an employment contract as an individual is not the goal - the employment conditions, and the relations and standing in the workplace - are the goal. A contract is at best a means to reach the goal, and at worst - a fetish. I've seen many a unionization drive fixate on negotiations and a contract, not on building "shop-floor" power, on the individual and collective level. When grads walk around knowing that mistreatment by administration or supervisors will result in harsh collective action by their peers - from public shaming of those involved to work disruption if necessary, contract or no contract - that's when things have changed. But if what you get is a link to a piece of paper saying that in theory you can seek some arbitration somehow, but in practice your daily life remains the same, then you haven't gained much.
The recent couple of centuries, especially the last one, have brought an increased application of commercial-corporation-type relations into academia, with graduate researchers and teachers being the object of degradation of both material welfare and intra-academic status. I wrote about this when I was involved in unionizing grads in my own university - not in the US, but still:
https://app.box.com/s/osnf6xfqgqgvmnat6ldq
(or in Hebrew: https://app.box.com/shared/l3iypqd2yi )
I wish the MIT grads all the best in their struggle. However, when looking at their "Path to unionization" page: https://mitgsu.org/roadmap , I am worried they are too timid of an endeavor. They write:
> The real goal of the campaign is to secure a union contract
A contract is never the goal. Just like signing an employment contract as an individual is not the goal - the employment conditions, and the relations and standing in the workplace - are the goal. A contract is at best a means to reach the goal, and at worst - a fetish. I've seen many a unionization drive fixate on negotiations and a contract, not on building "shop-floor" power, on the individual and collective level. When grads walk around knowing that mistreatment by administration or supervisors will result in harsh collective action by their peers - from public shaming of those involved to work disruption if necessary, contract or no contract - that's when things have changed. But if what you get is a link to a piece of paper saying that in theory you can seek some arbitration somehow, but in practice your daily life remains the same, then you haven't gained much.