Mizzou graduate workers approve unionization

UPDATE: University of Missouri graduate assistants have overwhelmingly approved unionization.

84% of the votes tabulated from Monday and Tuesday were in favor of unionizing.

“We’re hoping that the margin of victory, as well as what I believe to be a pretty impressive turnout, will convince them they need to recognize the union and begin collective bargaining,” Connor Lewis, co-chair of the Coalition of Graduate Workers told ABC 17 News Tuesday night.

ORIGINAL STORY, 5:47 p.m.: Two polling locations on the University of Missouri’s campus closed Tuesday evening after a two-day graduate student vote on unionizing.

The League of Women Voters officiated the vote, with tables set up in both Memorial Union and the Student Center on Monday and Tuesday. The Coalition of Graduate Workers wants to formally unionize to bargain with school administration on issues such as pay and healthcare.

“We do research, we receive wages and pay taxes on [them], all as employees,” Lireley McCune said. “We are mandatory reporters for Title IX. So we have all the responsibilities of employees, but not the rights.”

The key right in this matter, Lirely McCune said, is collective bargaining. By joining with the Missouri National Education Association, the Coalition of Graduate Workers could negotiate contracts with university administration. Currently, graduate students receive a stipend, subsidized health insurance and a tuition waiver. Concern and confusion after the school took away, then returned, health insurance to graduate students served as a catalyst to pursue this route.

“We don’t know if we’re going to have insurance after next year,” Lirley McCune said. “We don’t know what’s going to happen. We need a contract. Promises are not enough.”

Joe Rulli, a second year graduate student pursuing a master’s degree in music, told ABC 17 News he voted for the unionization. While he will not reap its benefits once he finishes school in a few weeks, he said his father benefited from the union established at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“My note can say something for future generations, even if it doesn’t affect me directly,” Rulli said.

Rulli added that a union would help clarify the students’ requests of administration.

Interim chancellor Hank Foley said legal issues would stop the school from recognizing its graduate students as employees.

“Moreover, we have been working in good faith with this organization on key issues, including stipends, graduate student housing, and their desire to organize. In recent conversations, we indicated there was some question regarding the legality of unionization among graduate students, and until this question is resolved, it would be inappropriate to move forward. To this end, any vote to unionize at this time cannot be considered binding or recognized by the university,” Foley wrote in an April 8 email.