IU grad workers suspend strike, hundreds of faculty gather in emergency meeting

While the conclusion of the spring semester has left most of Indiana University's Bloomington campus empty, at least one corner was still swarming with life Monday afternoon. In the blazing heat, hundreds of faculty members stood in a long, winding line outside IU Auditorium to attend the first emergency all-faculty meeting since 2005.

A few feet away, in front of the Showalter Fountain, many IU graduate workers, whose labor strike instigated the emergency meeting, sung chants for solidarity, urging faculty members to extend their support of a union.

While the official outcome of the vote is still pending, the preliminary faculty response has swayed the Indiana Graduate Workers Coalition members to suspend their month-long labor strike.

"The first full faculty meeting in 17 years sends a huge signal to the administration and to the rest of the country who's looking at Indiana University and hoping that the administration will do the right thing and come into dialogue with us," said Katie Shy, IGWC member.

Month-long strike suspended, to be revisited in fall

Monday night, members of the IGWC suspended the four-week strike with a 78% majority vote. The graduate workers plan to submit grades for the spring semester.

Faculty expressed general support at their emergency meeting, leading IGWC to briefly cease strike activity in hopes of opening dialogue with administrators.

"We're all transformed by what we've done together and really excited for the next semester," Shy said.

Watch: Indiana University graduate workers on strike at Bloomington campus

Administrators and graduate workers now have the summer to talk about working conditions and possible union recognition.

"We are open to a dialogue with the administration over the summer, and we're really also eager to see what comes of the faculty's demonstration of their will for there to be a union on campus. We're looking forward to seeing what conversations unfold among the higher administration and the Board of Trustees this summer," Shy said.

The IU Bloomington campus has about 10,000 graduate students, of which about 2,500 are Student Academic Appointees (more colloquially known as graduate workers). About 1,750 IU graduate workers are part of the coalition seeking union recognition.

The labor strike began on April 13 shortly after members of the IGWC voted in favor of it in a 1,008-23 decision. Since then, many graduate workers, including those who are instructors of record for undergraduate classes, have ceased working on campus.

IU spokesman Chuck Carney has said only a handful of classes were impacted by the strike, but many faculty members expressed concern over how final grades will be submitted for the spring semester and how future classes could be offered without graduate worker assistance.

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

In response to the strike, Provost Rahul Shrivastav previously announced a task force focused on crafting the "ideal graduate experience" and the reinstatement of the Student Academic Appointee (graduate student worker) Committee of the Bloomington Faculty Council. Shrivastav also has previously committed to a 5% stipend increase for all SAAs and a new campus-wide minimum stipend rate of $18,000, in addition to more flexibility in using tuition waivers. None of Shrivastav's actions have received support from IGWC.

While administrators initially worked with graduate student representatives within the Indiana University's Graduate and Professional Student Government, the organization recently withdrew all representatives from campus boards and committees. The graduate student government has said it will not reinstate its presence on campus until administrators officially meet with the IGWC.

Indiana University: Faculty chair calls provost memo 'a slap in the face' pitting faculty against grad workers

The administration also has released new final grading guidance for classes impacted by the labor dispute, but some faculty criticized the guidance as pitting faculty against students.

The IGWC will host another vote on Sept. 26 to decide whether to resume the strike. At Monday's meeting, union members also voted to move all courses off Canvas, the online course grading system, for the fall semester to ensure graduate employees have full control of the grades for the classes they teach.

"We wanted to take a minute and think about how we can use our strength most effectively when campuses are full again in the fall," Shy said.

'We believe in our grad workers,' chair says

Faculty convened to discuss the administration's responses to IU graduate workers' request of union recognition and an outlined process on how to discuss benefits, higher wages and fee reduction with administrators.

While waiting in line for the meeting, some faculty members were critical of the administration's response to the strike.

Ranu Samantrai, associate professor of English, said the continual labor dispute between the graduate worker coalition and the administration is due to a lack of direct dialogue between the two entities.

"The faculty overwhelmingly believes in the right of all people to represent themselves collectively," Samantrai said of the high faculty turnout.

The faculty meeting's agenda included asserting the departments' role in reappointing graduate workers and discouraging administrators from retaliation against graduate workers who participated in the strike. There was also a call to immediately release SAA appointments for the summer session, which have allegedly been held back by administrators.

According to several faculty members who attended the meeting, there was overwhelming support of the graduate workers.

"It was the case of faculty speaking with one voice and that voice, that message is: We believe in our grad students," said Benjamin Robinson, associate professor and chair of Germanic Studies.

Maria Bucur, history professor, noted other research universities are going through similar unionization efforts.

"To not move in that direction means that you're just kind of falling behind the times. You're not gonna be competitive. You're not gonna be able to recruit students — these smart students, our future colleagues," Bucur said.

Samantrai agreed that unionization of graduate workers is not a new concept at other universities.

"I think that IU is always trying to play catch up to universities such as Michigan and Berkeley, which have been unionized for half a century. If IU would like to be on par with the better universities, it needs to catch up," Samantrai said.

The Bloomington Faculty Constitution dictates that at least 800 faculty members must vote in favor for a resolution to pass. Because less than 800 faculty were physically present, an electronic ballot is being distributed via email to other faculty. Results are expected shortly.

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

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: IU grad student union suspends strike for the summer