MIT graduate students seek to form union, ask university for voluntary recognition
A majority of graduate students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have signed cards in favor of unionizing, and the group asked the administration to voluntarily recognize the union.
If the university does not voluntarily recognize the union by Dec. 26, the student group will enter a formal election process with the National Labor Relations Board. Its national affiliate is the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America.
“It’s a reflection of the democratic power that we as graduate students have built. People have joined this movement for a variety of reasons but they all relate to deeply felt systemic issues that MIT has failed to make any movement on,” said Lucy Hu, a graduate student in the Department of Health Sciences and Technology. “A union is the way we make a meaningful and material change.”