The Tartan

“Better pay and working conditions, child care, more affordable health care plans, and more support for international students. … Carnegie Mellon can afford to pay for all of this and more.”

Catherine and Benjamin are two PhD students in the department of English and members of the English Graduate Collective, who wish to see a union representing all student workers at Carnegie Mellon. This past Wednesday in Doherty Hall, about 50 people — including graduate, undergraduate, and post-doc student-workers — filled the seats of room 2210 to learn about the process of unionizing and meet one another.

A handful of graduate and PhD students, representing several departments, delivered a short presentation on the efforts that have been made so far to organize student workers at Carnegie Mellon.

The campaign was spurred over the summer when the university gave a $1,500 bonus to select faculty and staff members. The bonus, awarded with no criteria provided as to which employees were eligible, was intended to relieve the inflation-driven rise in the cost of living. The prevailing sentiment was: Why shouldn’t grad students get inflation relief too?

On Nov. 7, the leaders of the campaign delivered a petition to University Provost Jim Garrett with over 1,000 signatures, asking for the bonus to be awarded to graduate students as well.

Most of the work so far has involved spreading the word and gaining a base of support for a student union. The presenters outlined next steps, which would begin with electing the members of an organizing committee to lead the union campaign. Then, they must choose a union to join, sign union cards, and petition the National Labor Relations Board to allow for Carnegie Mellon student workers to officially vote on joining a union. They believe that if all goes well, they could be formally part of a union by next semester.

They drew comparisons to the graduate student union at M.I.T. They pointed out that Carnegie Mellon is a similarly-sized, urban, tech-focused university, with disparities in funding and resources between different departments. The M.I.T graduate student union successfully negotiated a contract with their university in September, after a year of bargaining.

Beyond just spreading the word, this event was intended to build relationships and connections among student workers. The posters for the event invited undergraduate student workers to attend. Pizza and drinks were provided. The presentation was followed by a ten minute break for attendees to mingle with one another and with the organizers, before the meeting concluded with a group-wide discussion of their experiences and desired outcomes.

The word of the evening was “siloed,” repeatedly used to describe how graduate students feel fractured and isolated between colleges. Many said they wanted more solidarity among departments — one even attributed the failure of past student union campaigns at Carnegie Mellon to this lack of solidarity.

Attendees and speakers gave a multitude of reasons why they wanted a union. Much of it came down to money, with many expressing that they simply could not afford living in Pittsburgh from their yearly stipend. They described a lack of transparency in the way their stipends are funded, explaining that the source of their pay is often convoluted and confusing, with little consistency between departments. Many even described not being fully paid their stipend and having to navigate through a series of bureaucratic hoops to receive their due earnings.

Another common sentiment was the desire for greater protection and bargaining power. Graduate students are not formally recognized as employees, hence the designation of their pay as a “stipend” rather than a salary. Many felt that this contributes to a culture of exploitation and disregard for graduate students. One attendee pointed out that in the worst case, this leaves them vulnerable to harassment by faculty advisors with little path for recourse.

One particular goal of the union is ensuring protection for international students, who are a substantial part of the graduate program — in fall 2022, over half of admitted PhD students were international. International students at Carnegie Mellon are only given a J1 Visa, which is intended for “exchange visitor programs.” Most peer institutions use the more robust H1 visa, reserved for “specialty occupation.”

One international student at the meeting expressed concern that by being involved in a union campaign, they risk retaliation from the university in the form of rescinded visas or even deportation.

One undergraduate teaching assistant agreed that while undergraduate student workers had different concerns and needs, they would also benefit from a student workers’ union. The leaders of the event stressed the importance of undergraduate involvement, asking those who were present to spread the word in their departments.

Many discussed feeling overworked and undersupported. One attendee described how they were made lead TA for a large class, assigned a staff of undergraduate TAs, and given no direction from their department. They worried that this culture of overworking graduate students impacts the learning environment of their students.

Catherine and Benjamin both teach first-year English, a required course for all Carnegie Mellon students. Their stipend is based on an estimated 10-hour work week of teaching, but both were certain that that was a gross underestimate.

“I teach approximately 40 students a semester independently. I also work four jobs in order to make rent,” Catherine said. “We are the direct face of the first-year student experience in many cases. … We would be better positioned with a union to fight for and with us.”

Though graduate students are represented by the Graduate Student Assembly, Benjamin argued, “GSA cannot legally fight for our needs as a union can.” While the GSA can advocate for changes, the university is under no obligation to negotiate with the GSA as it is not a formal bargaining unit and has no power to make contracts.

They both agreed that between their teaching duties and employment elsewhere in the school, they were hard-pressed to find time for their research. Catherine said that it’s hard to feel supported by the university “when I’m going to the campus food pantry, working 60-hour work weeks, or not able to focus on my writing and research.”

They also described a situation in which the English graduate students had to fight one another for funding — only one of them will be able to forgo their teaching for an upcoming semester in order to prepare for their dissertation defense.

They also explained the unique challenges they faced by working in a department “starved of resources,” relative to their peers in STEM disciplines. Catherine pointed out that “outside of teaching, we also have lost numerous faculty members recently, watched our writing center be dismantled, and faced faculty hiring halts imposed by the university.” And at a school with such strong programs in tech and science, Benjamin argued that “our research is never what is compensated, clearly reflecting the university’s devaluation of humanities research.”

Wednesday’s meeting had a distinct sense of optimism, with the event leaders feeling that the momentum generated by other successful student worker unions was promising for them.

“We are in a city with a rich labor history, where people have organized to secure rights for working people,” Benjamin said. “It is no different at Carnegie Mellon. We are workers and deserve the right to organize and collectively bargain.”