Doctoral students forming a union at the University of Rochester have announced plans to hold a strike later this month.
Union organizers said in a statement that the strike scheduled for April 21 follows the university’s refusal to commit to a fair process for graduate workers to vote on forming a union. In a vote last week, 90% of graduate student workers supported a strike.
“This school cannot function without grad workers, and we will see the realities of that come April 21st,” Maeve Gillen, a Ph.D. candidate in the Music Theory department, said in a statement. “Hundreds of grads are committed to striking. ... We do not want to do this, but until the university signs our election agreement, they leave us no choice.”
Jake Allen, an organizer with SEIU Local 200 and lead organizer for this union campaign, said agreements between union representatives and universities — like what the Graduate Labor Union is seeking here — exist at other higher education institutions.
“These have been really common at other institutions, and we were really surprised and disappointed to see that they pulled out of the agreement here,” Allen said. “That whole agreement was designed to avoid the exact moment that we're in. It was designed to allow for labor peace on campus and a fair pathway for grads to form a union.”
A University of Rochester spokesperson said in a statement that entering into a private election agreement is a process the university has “never before agreed to” and the typical process would be for the union to seek recognition through the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
“We are steadfast in the belief that entering into a private election agreement at this time is not in the best interests of the University community," UR spokesperson Sara Miller said in a statement. “The University will not succumb to the union’s pressure tactics and has put into place contingency plans that will minimize the disruption that a strike might have on our academic mission, including teaching and research activities.”
Allen said going to the NLRB is not a viable option.
“The only channel that that's been provided to grads is to go through the National Labor Relations Board, which is currently dysfunctional and is soon to be dominated by Trump appointees,” he said. “When they say ‘No agreement, go to the board,’ what they actually mean is ‘No union.’”
The National Education Association, a labor union, describes graduate student employee unions as “the propulsive engine of higher-ed unionization today,” with about four in 10 such graduate workers belonging to a union.
According to the NEA, in 2024 there were about 150,104 graduate workers who belonged to unions compared with 64,424 in 2012.
