Graduate Employees and Students Organization
| Full name | Graduate Employees and Students Organization |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1990 |
| Country | United States |
| Affiliation | UNITE HERE |
| Website | GESO Website |
The Graduate Employees and Students Organization (GESO) is a group of graduate student teachers and researchers which is trying to be recognized as a union at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.
The group's precursor, T.A. Solidarity, was founded in 1987. T.A. Solidarity members voted to affiliate with other campus unions in the Spring of 1990, seeking union recognition and collective bargaining, and adopting their current nomenclature. GESO members have participated in several strikes and walk-outs over the course of their sixteen-year history. In March, 2003, GESO members joined members of campus unions in a one week strike, in an attempt to gain recognition as a collective bargaining agent from the Yale University administration.
In April 2003, GESO held a voluntary, not legally binding, but highly controversial election under the supervision of the League of Women Voters, in which graduate students voted 694 to 651 against making GESO their collective bargaining agent. This is despite the fact that GESO selected its own list of voters, excluding those TAs who they deemed to be unfit for the election, and focused on publicizing the election in departments where they had the most support (such as humanities and languages). Observers attributed the loss to the aggressive and undemocratic tactics of GESO recruiters, such as disrupting psychological lab experiments and forcing their way into biological labs where radioactive experiments were being run.[1]
GESO later attributed the loss to an unexpectedly high number of science students turning out to vote. There is also evidence that a number of members did vote against their union in the ballot. There were also 27 write in ballots which stated that they supported the idea of unionization, but did not support GESO as that union.[1]
In December 2005, GESO finally won a victory in their own elections, after denying the right to vote to any student who opposes unionization, and excluding all TAs from the natural sciences altogether. When asked why all of the TAs from the natural sciences were excluded, GESO publicity contact Rachel Sulkes said that they have "defined themselves as outside our interests".[2]
GESO has since mounted campaigns over pay equity in the humanities and alleged human rights violations in the university's investment policies, while continuing to push for union recognition.
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[edit] Actions
Several hundred graduate students from humanities and social sciences at Yale and Columbia universities went on a teaching strike for five days in April 2005 to demand recognition from their universities less than a year after the National Labor Relations Board denied them of protections under the National Labor Relations Act, reversing an earlier precedent, decided in 2000, that graduate employees at New York University were workers and thus entitled to said protections. University officials have stated that the strike had "minimal impact" on the operations of the school. Jesse Jackson made a brief appearance on behalf of GESO. [2] The university has stated that it will continue its previous policy and will not bargain with GESO. [3]
GESO is affiliated with UNITE HERE as a constituent member of the Federation of Hospital and University Employees, which also includes food service and maintenance workers, clerical and technical workers, and employees of Yale-New Haven Hospital's dietary unit.
[edit] GSA Neutrality
The Graduate Student Assembly (GSA), the university's official representative body for graduate students (which has advisory capacities in some matters, voting capacities in others), has decided to remain neutral to the union debate, and has issued a statement of neutrality to that effect.
[edit] Opposition
Groups have been formed in opposition to the union. These include Graduates Against Student Organization GASO, an unorganized collection of students in direct opposition of GESO, and At What Cost?, which encourages careful consideration of the consequences of forming a graduate student union. Both groups criticize GESO for their "aggressive recruiting methods." Also, these organzitions argue that a sizable number of graduate students who are counted by GESO as members signed member cards solely to pacify recruiters. Membership in both groups is low, and their activity has been primarily in response to GESO actions, such as the 2003 election.
[edit] See also
- Graduate student unionization
- Graduate Student Organizing Committee
- National Labor Relations Act
- NLRB election procedures
[edit] References
- ^ Rachel M.S. Anderson (2003-05-21). "Why Yale Grad Students Didn't Unionize | Opinion | The Harvard Crimson". Thecrimson.com. http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2003/5/21/why-yale-grad-students-didnt-unionize/. Retrieved 2011-11-04.
- ^ "Yale Daily News Earth to Geso Efforts to Unionze are Lost Cause". Yaledailynews.com. 2005-01-12. http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2005/jan/12/earth-to-geso-efforts-to-unionize-are-lost-cause/. Retrieved 2011-11-04.
