Frequently Asked Questions

A union is an organization of workers that work together to negotiate for common interests through a process called collective bargaining. Collective bargaining is a legally-protected process that allows the union to negotiate the terms of employment which are otherwise unilaterally determined by employers. 

We are forming a union since we believe that our work is treated unfairly by the school. Our stipends have not had a significant increase for a long time, and the increased amount does not match up with inflation nor with insurance fee. Moreover, there are concerns among work hours for Teaching Assistants, inappropriate behaviors from advisors and faculty toward graduate students, as well as tuition payment for Research Assistantship. At the start of the 2025-2026 academic year, the provider of graduate students' health insurance was swapped for another provider without notice. We deserve better pay, better protections, and better insurance. 

Even if there are no problems in the institution, a union guarantees graduate students have the power to push back against negative changes by the university through collective action. Additionally, improvements can always be made for the lives of the workers, and even though some students may feel mostly good about their positions, a union could guarantee good conditions for all workers rather than just those who are lucky with a good advisor. 

The bargaining unit of this workers union effort includes Teaching Assistants and Research Assistants at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. 

Some university administrations argue that collective bargaining disrupts faculty in their role of advising and instructing graduate students by introducing a third party (a union) into the relationship. In “Graduate Student Employee Collective Bargaining and the Educational Relationship between Faculty and Graduate Students”, Dr. Gordon J. Hewitt directly addresses these claims by conducting a survey. He interviewed almost 300 faculty across five US public universities* with graduate students bargaining collectively for at least four years. Hewitt writes, “The results from these items show that student bargaining does not inhibit the faculty’s ability to advise graduate students (90.4%); does not inhibit the faculty’s ability to instruct graduate students (91.5%); and does not inhibit the faculty’s mentor relationship with graduate students (87.9%).” (Hewitt 159)

*The reason that all five institutions considered were public rather than private is that the article was published June 1st, 2000 which was before the National Labor Relations Board decided in New York University, 332 NLRB 1205 that graduate students had the right to collective bargaining on October 31st of that year.