Graduate workers at Indiana University went on strike this morning in response to the administration’s continued refusal to recognize their union, the Indiana Graduate Workers Coalition–United Electrical Workers (IGWC-UE). Recognition strikes are uncommon in recent years and, taking place as this one does in a state where public sector workers have few rights (though the same could be said of all Indiana workers, living as they do in a right-to-work state), it’s a show of strength intended to demonstrate that the union has not only majority support among the school’s estimated 2,500 graduate workers but majority participation in a high-stakes collective action.þþWhen the union held a strike-authorization vote over the weekend, the result was 1,008 in favor, 23 against, meaning 97.8 percent of ballots cast were in favor of striking. Now, the workers have walked off the job, with undergraduates staging a walkout in solidarity at noon today and a number of faculty backing the workers’ demand for recognition against the administration’s intransigence. While workers hope for a quick resolution, they say that they’re prepared to strike at least through April 19 and longer if necessary.þþJacobin’s Alex N. Press spoke to Cole Nelson, an IGWC-UE member and first-year PhD student in IU’s media studies school, about what led to today’s strike, the demands driving the organizing, and where the action fits into a broader wave of labor organizing in higher education.
Source: jacobinmag.com
