IU Board of Trustees says no to a student labor union, grad workers prepare for fall strike

The Indiana University Board of Trustees will not recognize the IU graduate student worker coalition as a labor union and issued a warning about consequences for disruptive behavior, such as striking, that impacts undergraduate students.

While the coalition still hopes the trustees will change their viewpoint, many graduate workers remain undeterred from their goal of unionization.

In April, many student graduate workers went on a labor strike for four weeks, requesting union recognition from the IU administration and an official process to discuss benefits, higher wages and fee reduction.

Task force meets: IU graduate student task force looks to update labor structure, financial aid, health

In response, Provost Rahul Shrivastav announced a series of changes and new initiatives, including a higher stipend and a specialized task force, but administrators have been steadfast in rejecting unionization efforts.

This week, after a months-long silence on the labor dispute, the trustees weighed in, but it isn't the answer some graduate workers and faculty members were hoping for.

"The process to enhance the experience for our graduate students is best accomplished through the existing channels of shared governance and collaboration, some new and some that have long driven IU’s progress," the board said in a recent message to the Bloomington Faculty Council.

The electronic letter was sent from every board member, except newcomer Cathy Langham. Langham, co-founder and president of a third-party logistics and freight management company, was recently appointed to the board in April by Gov. Eric Holcomb following James T. Morris' retirement.

Student unionization is "incompatible with IU’s approach to shared governance," according to the trustees.

Faculty weigh in: IU Bloomington faculty urge Board of Trustees to intervene in grad worker union fight

The Board of Trustees also noted this is not a new stance, with anti-unionization being communicated through multiple provosts over the years, most recently by interim provost John Applegate right before Shrivastav assumed his position.

The board commended Shrivastav's work in the labor dispute so far, emphasizing the 15 listening sessions he conducted with graduate students in every school in his first two months. Shrivastav also collaborated with the BFC to establish a committee and several working groups to investigate graduate workers' concerns. This is the best way for graduate workers and administrators to speak directly with one another about issues, the trustees wrote.

The trustees' response comes less than a month after the Bloomington faculty issued support for the graduate workers' union.

At an emergency meeting last month, the Bloomington faculty urged the  trustees to work on a "permanent resolution to the labor dispute on campus," including an election on union representation for eligible graduate workers. The resolution referenced a process described in HR-12-20, which details how IU employees can form or join a labor organization in order to speak with the senior administration about working conditions. The trustees thanked the faculty for their input.

The board noted recent administrative initiatives are just the beginning of a long-term process to address graduate worker conditions but were resolute that union elections aren't the way to go.

More: IU graduate student group votes no confidence in provost, withdraws from campus committees

The Indiana Graduate Workers Coalition, which counts approximately 1,550 out of IU Bloomington's 2,500 graduate workers as members, disagrees.

"The way that shared governance has operated on this campus for the last several years hasn't been working for graduate students to make their voices heard. The only sort of vehicle that we've had has been our strike," said Katie Shy, IGWC representative.

According to Shy, shared governance, such as graduate students' participation in various university committees, can coexist alongside a recognized union.

"We know that the Board of Trustees really cares about the future of the university. We know that, like us, they have the best interest of IU in mind, and they really want to make the right decision," Shy said. "So we're concerned this decision not to recognize the union really goes against the mission of the university and the principle of shared governance."

In response to the trustees, the Bloomington Faculty Council Executive Committee sent a letter urging the board to reconsider its stance.

"We are concerned that your adamant opposition to a union will only further inflame an unnecessarily tense situation," the BFC letter reads.

According to BFC President Marietta Simpson, the letter's intent was to neither support nor denounce graduate student unionization. It was to express dismay at the trustees' "inflexible position."

"What we fully support regardless of a union is the improvement of conditions for our graduate student workers and we will continue our efforts to affect positive change as we look to the future," Simpson told The Herald-Times via email.

In the letter, the BFC expressed hope that all stakeholders in the labor dispute would have an opportunity to "engage in meaningful discourse" while the campus community prepares for the fall semester.

Coalition members are still interested in meeting directly with the trustees to share their perspective.

"This is an open invitation," Shy said.

IU trustees remind graduate workers of 'consequences' for disruption

The IU graduate workers strike is currently suspended, but the Indiana Graduate Workers Coalition will host a vote on Sept. 26 on whether to resume in the fall.

In its message, the trustees warn of "consequences" related to disrupting campus operations.

Ending the semester: IU grad workers suspend strike, hundreds of faculty gather in emergency meeting

"Existing, long-standing university policies that were developed through shared governance recognize this, and any member of the community — whether staff or tenured faculty or associate instructor — who fails to uphold their responsibilities in this regard will be subject to the consequences stated in these policies," the statement reads.

These policies include the student academic appointee guide, the Code of Academic Ethics, and Grade Submissions, which all outline the graduate workers' responsibilities and consequences for failure to complete them.

According to the student academic appointee guide, a graduate worker's appointment can be terminated by their department chair, dean or provost for "serious failure in assigned duties or for conduct otherwise at severe variance with that normally expected of University appointees."

Faculty also must abide by the Instructional Responsibilities policy, which states, if a schedule variation occurs in a class, faculty members must "provide equivalent activity for the students in the course and to notify the chairperson of the department offering the course of the change in schedule."

At the emergency meeting, the faculty overwhelmingly passed a resolution asserting authority in appointing graduate workers and specifically calling for no retaliation against graduate workers who participated in the strike. Though passed, the resolution makes no change to current policy nor create new policy. It merely indicates the official faculty response to administrators and the campus community at large.

IGWC members are preparing to go on strike again in the fall.

"The threat of retaliation didn't work in the spring," Shy said. "Over 1,000 of us still said, 'I'm gonna take this risk because I believe that it will make IU a better place to research, teach and learn,' and I don't think anything has changed on that front."

Contact Rachel Smith at rksmith@heraldt.com or @RachelSmithNews on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Indiana University trustees warn consequences for union, labor strike