GEO Expresses Solidarity with Graduate Workers at UNM
The Graduate Employees’ Organization, IFT/AFT Local 6300, is in solidarity with University of New Mexico Grad Workers United and their demand that the UNM administration respect their right to organize collectively and form a union. Last semester, a strong majority of graduate workers at UNM signed union cards and indicated their desire to exercise their right to collectively bargain. Despite the fact that according to the New Mexico Public Employee Bargaining Act, a public employer must recognize and bargain with a union when a majority of employees in the bargaining unit sign a union card, the UNM administration has refused to bargain in good faith. Instead, the admin has perniciously attempted to strip these employees of their rights as workers, filing a motion seeking to revoke the right of graduate workers to form unions by arguing that they are not “regular employees.” This is not only a reprehensible attempt at union busting, it’s also a renege on the administration’s previous statements stating that they would respect the rights of their workers to organize.
As unionized graduate workers at a public university, we know all too well how university administrators cynically seek to interfere with collective bargaining by claiming that graduate workers are primarily students rather than employees. The fact is, graduate workers--whether at UNM or UIUC--teach classes, grade papers, perform research, and, in short, perform labor vital to the university. We stand with UNM graduate workers in their efforts to unionize. We are workers, and universities work because we do!
We demand that the UNM administration does the right thing and respects the rights of their graduate employees to organize collectively.
The Graduate Employees’ Organization, AFT/IFT Local 6300, AFL-CIO, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, represents approximately 2,700 Teaching and Graduate Assistants on the UIUC Campus. In November 2009 and in February 2018, over 1,000 GEO members and allies participated in a strike to secure a fair contract and more accessible UIUC campus. With an active presence in the community, the GEO continues to work for high-quality and accessible public education in Illinois.
For more information, please contact geo@uigeo.org. More information can also be found on GEO’s website at www.uiucgeo.org.
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