Grad Student Testimonials

This page serves as a platform for individuals to share their experiences with CGSU-UE. If you wish to share your experience you can do so using this form. We guarantee that your responses will remain anonymous.

"I don’t deny there are injustices grad students face which could be addressed in a collective bargaining agreement. In my own department we do trial projects to test the working relationship between student and advisor. In theory this system resembles rotations, but the critical difference is there is no time limit. Some students have worked on a trial project for 9 months or more before being ejected from the group. While no bargaining agreement can compel faculty to hire a student against their will, it could place some guard rails against the worst abuses. That said, my concerns about CGSU have always been about their obviously undemocratic norms. Communication about their operations and voting privileges can only be unlocked by agreeing to pay dues and endorse their political speech. In this sense they act as political party, free to close their doors to non-members. After NLRB certification, however, CGSU became our exclusive representative, literally outlawing other unions. In this sense they are a new, sovereign government over the grad students, and compulsory dues payments are simply taxes. The U.S. abolished taxes as a precondition of voting in the civil rights era for obvious reasons and provides many opportunities for the public to supervise government conduct. CGSU operates with a split identity, both an exclusive political party and a one-party state with democratic rights only available to party members, adopting one or the other per their convenience. What disturbs me the most is it didn’t have to be this way. CGSU should have decided to avoid political activity altogether and focus only on economic issues in the grad school, but their decision to affiliate with the politically radical UE, without a vote from the grad students at large, tells me that CGSU is more interested in scoring a “win” against the university than representing all of us. In my view, open shop properly balances the need to force the Cornell admin to the bargaining table against trampling the political rights of a minority of grad students, who couldn't form an opposition union even if they wanted to."

 – Ben Gregory (physics)

"Someone showed me what was written about me in CGSU's internal system, where organizers keep notes on grad students and rate us numerically from 1 to 5. I saw they had logged every interaction they had ever had with me. I also saw that one organizer reported in my file about a private conversation that he had overheard me having with a friend in a coffee shop on campus. I also saw that another organizer, someone I had considered a friend in my own department, replied with negative comments about my friend and me."

"I am a member of CGSU-UE, and I signed a union card last September. I have recently been publicly asking questions about the union and expressing skepticism about it. I just noticed that in the last month, I was removed from email communications from both CGSU and a bargaining committee member in my department. I am still a member and represented by the union, and I feel that I am being punished for asking questions. When I contacted CGSU and the bargaining committee member inquiring about why I receive some emails but not others, they claimed that I "opted out of communications" in November (I didn't). When I pointed out this wasn't consistent with the facts, because I still received emails in December and February, and only stopped receiving emails in March, they were evasive and claimed that this was due to "errors in the system." I asked for more transparency about the permissions system for CGSU communications and they refused to provide it. I also asked to see what they had written about me in their internal system where they track grad students, and they replied that if there had been anything about me, it has been deleted. CGSU has not been transparent about their decision to remove me from their contact list, and I do not believe that this could have been a mistake made by an automated system. I have also contacted the bargaining committee member in my department several times asking about why they took me off their contact list, and I have not heard back. Grad students should demand more accountability and transparency from CGSU."

"When I expressed my concerns about striking, and disrupting my own workflow (I am here to get a degree. I want to get this degree fast so I can start my career.) the CGSU organizer said that he understood my concern, and said he would likely continue doing his research from home, since he primarily does simulations. I don't have the luxury of hiding my work, I have to physically go into my lab and perform experiments, with sometimes time critical chemicals. He said no one could force me to strike, which, physically, is true. But the union maintains power by levying fines, and I don't have the time and money to deal with the repercussions of the union, not me, deciding to strike."

"During the card campaign when CGSU-UE was getting students to sign union cards the initial conversation conveyed to me that it was not a legally binding document, just a statement of support. This was repeated to a number of people that I talked to. When I really pushed the issue to one of the reps, he told me that it's not binding because the union doesn't exist, but it was a statement saying that I would join it should it be created. Which was kinda dancing around the actual issue. And ultimately, yeah it IS a legally binding statement."

Want to share you experience with CGSU-UE? You can do so using this form.

If you feel that a union shop is inappropriate for an academic setting, please sign our open letter to the Cornell Administration (you can remain anonymous). If you want to learn more about what's in it for CGSU, click here. We invite everyone with questions and comments to reach out to us.