Dear Graduate Students, 

The Boston Region of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has issued a determination that graduate students who are on stipended assistantships such as a TA or RA, as well as graduate students who are paid hourly to perform instructional or research services, and who are located on the Boston, Burlington and Nahant campuses are allowed to vote in an election to determine if the United Autoworkers should represent all graduate students in this proposed unit as their union. You are receiving this email because the NLRB has determined that you are eligible to vote in the election.

What does this mean? 

An election will take place 

The NLRB will preside over a secret ballot election on September 19, 20 and 21 on the Boston campus to determine if the United Autoworkers Union should represent you with respect to matters concerning terms and conditions of your assistantship, or hourly instructional or research services, with the university. Graduate students who provided such services in the Fall 2022 and/or the Spring 2023 semesters will also be eligible to vote, provided that they have not graduated or withdrawn from their programs. The voting will take place from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and from 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. on these days at a location that has yet to be determined. Students in Nahant and Burlington will need to travel to the Boston campus to vote. 

Because the election will be by secret ballot, nobody will know how you voted, unless you tell them.   

Every vote counts in a union election 

The determination of whether a union will represent graduate students is based upon a majority of those who show up to vote. This means, for example, that a union can be elected to represent a group of 1,000 graduate students if only 51 students out of 100 voting say they want a union. It is therefore very important to vote and be counted. 

You cannot opt out if a union is elected 

The NLRB has determined that you are included in the larger graduate student group for unionization. If a union is elected, you will be represented by the union even if you don’t want a union at Northeastern.    

As a member of the bargaining unit, you may be required to pay union dues or fees that would be deducted from your stipend as is the case, for example, at NYU where the United Autoworkers represent graduate students. 

Union bargaining will replace individualized arrangements with your college 

Unionization means that the university and its colleges will be obligated to bargain with an elected union – and not work with you directly — over issues such as your pay, benefit hours, schedules, time off and potentially many other matters that concern your assistantship or hourly assignment. While we do not know what the union would raise at the bargaining table, we expect that the United Autoworkers will seek to bargain with the university over all terms and conditions of your assistantship or hourly assignment.   

Bargaining may take a long time 

We do not know how long bargaining would take if the union won an election.  It could take weeks, months or even years.  It often takes a year or more to negotiate a first collective bargaining agreement. For example, it took over 2 years to reach agreement on a graduate union contract at Harvard.  

We encourage you to become informed about what it means to have a union and to vote in the election on September 19, 20 and 21. Our webpage has FAQs and other relevant information that may be helpful, such as understanding union dues and fees, what union representation means and how a strike could impact you.  This is an important decision that will impact you, as well as future graduate students.   

We look forward to continuing to build on the significant progress we have made as a graduate student community, and to our continued partnership with graduate government and with you at the college level.   

Regards,

David Madigan, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs