By Donald Gilpin

In the context of a national rise in unionization, including successful unionization initiatives at a number of university graduate schools, Princeton University’s graduate students continue to push for a graduate student union at Princeton.

A majority of Princeton University graduate students, more than 1,700 of 3,212, have signed union cards, according to Princeton Graduate Students United (PGSU), but the recruitment effort is running into some headwinds in the form of opposition from a number of graduate students and some concerns and resistance from the University administration.

“We know that across the board Princeton graduate students overwhelmingly want a union,” said Tim Alberdingk Thijm, a fifth-year graduate student in the Computer Science Department and a PGSU leader. “We’re going to keep having conversations as we sign up not just a majority, but a supermajority.”

Thijm pointed out that a supermajority would give the PSGU more power in future bargaining sessions with the University. “We are aiming for a supermajority before we file for an election in order to demonstrate the strength of our campaign and place ourselves in a strong position at the bargaining table once we win our union,” he said.

For its next step after a significant number of graduate students have signed union cards, the PSGU would most likely petition the University for voluntary recognition. If denied, the PGSU would probably enlist the National Labor Relations Board to organize a date for an election. If more than 50 percent of graduate students vote “yes,” the union is legally recognized and can create a bargaining committee to negotiate with the University.

Specific goals of the PGSU in pursuing unionization include fair and effective cross campus grievance procedures; improved support for international students; comprehensive, inclusive, and funded health care and child care; affordable housing guaranteed through graduation; guaranteed cost of living adjustments and contingency funding; and fair, clear, and safe work standards.

Affordable housing and increased stipends have been of particular interest to many unionization advocates, including a gathering of more than 150 at a PGSU rally on February 15 in Scudder Plaza.

Dean of the Graduate School Rodney Priestley, in a February 28 email memo on unionization stated, “We want to make sure that each graduate student can form their own decision without any pressure from the institution or its constituents, including students for or against unionization and faculty.”

He went on to suggest some of the University’s concerns about unionization, cautioning, “By design, union representation would change some aspects of your relationship with the University, and we do have some concerns about how such representation would affect your education and experience at Princeton. You may also have many questions about how unionization would impact you and your relationships with your fellow students, your faculty advisors, and others in our community.”

In Priestley’s memo, as well as on the graduate school website, the University offered an abundance of information on student unionization, including a detailed section with FAQs and responses concerning graduate student unionization.

In a March 3 memo to students the graduate school pointed out that the proposed stipend rate for the 2023-24 school year is between $47,880 and $50,400 for graduate students, “one of the highest in the nation, if not the highest,” and a 5 percent increase over last year’s rates.

Successful unionization efforts have taken place at other Ivy League institutions in recent years, most recently at Yale University in January. Columbia, Brown, and Harvard graduate students have also formed unions. In addition to Yale, MIT, Northwestern University, the University of Southern California, and Johns Hopkins University have voted in the past year to establish unions.

A March 30 article in the Daily Princetonian on the unionization effort stated that “hesitation remains for some graduate students.” The article pointed out a number of criticisms of the PSGU leadership and noted that students in STEM fields were less enthusiastic about union membership than their humanities counterparts.