​A graduate student union will make Duke better

Thanks to a hard fought, and well-deserved, ruling by the National Labor Relations Board handed down in August, Duke graduate students are working to unionize. While support among students appears to be strong on campus, the Duke administration is pushing back hard in an attempt to prevent the students from voting on whether or not to form a union. Now that’s not very democratic, is it? As an economist, I can confidently say that the benefits of unions range far and wide. As a former graduate student once covered by a union, I can say that the union greatly improved my role as a student, educator and worker.

As a Postdoc here at Duke we are not covered under the current union drive. Nevertheless, the concerns of the graduate students here resonate with my recent experiences as a graduate student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst where I earned a Ph.D. in economics. During my time there I had the privilege to be in a union. The union provided us graduate students a collective voice at the table, a voice that empowered students to speak their minds, share their needs, and be heard by the University. Our union—the Graduate Employee Organization—was part of the UAW and worked for a long list of changes that improved my life as a graduate student worker, allowing me to focus on my role as a researcher and educator.

During my tenure as a graduate student, we negotiated a new contract twice. This was not always easy, but it was a process well worth our time, and that of the administration. As graduate students, we advocated for, and won, things like child care services for graduate students with families, adequate dental and vision coverage,reduced class size for undergraduates and stipends in line with other universities of our stature.

The benefits didn’t end there. I witnessed fellow graduate students benefit greatly from the grievance process on multiple occasions. Bosses driving graduate students to work far beyond their 20 hour stipends is not rare—it’s the norm. Students deserve adequate protection from unfair labor practices, discrimination, and potential conflicts with their advisors. A union can ensure that the most vulnerable workers are protected. This helped make our university a stronger place, and provided a more inclusive environment to learn, teach, and research. But the Duke administration doesn’t seem to be on board. Let’s face it, Duke doesn’t exactly have a squeaky clean record in terms of workers’ rights or discrimination.

As an economist I can tell you that the graduate student union is a good idea plain and simply. In their classic book, "What Do Unions Do?," Harvard economists Richard Freeman and James Medoff discuss the vital role unions play in improving the workplace for workers and the firm itself. Unions are crucial to reducing inequality, increasing productivity, improving retention and graduation rates, reducing discrimination in the workplace, and providing workers with a happy workplace. A happy worker is a productive worker.

The research shows that tenured and non-tenure track faculty benefit when graduate students form unions too. According to an article published in Science Magazine, unions lead to better relationships between graduate assistants and faculty, and campuses with graduate student unions have a higher tolerance for a diversity of opinions. On our own campus, more than 100 faculty have signed a letter in support of graduate students’ right to form a union.

The university is a place where workers, undergraduates, graduate students, professors, and others come together to share ideas. At the university we seek to explore knowledge, to understand our society and to contemplate how we build a better, more just society. A union for graduate students is a step in that direction.

Graduate students deserve a say in their workplace. The administration and board of Duke University should congratulate the students in their pursuit to hold a democratic election and decide if they will unionize. Promoting democratic values, including the right to have a say in one's workplace, should be central to the mission of Duke, not one they resist. This is an opportunity to build the synergistic relationship between graduate students, faculty, and the administration. In the end, a union will support a strong graduate student body and a strong Duke.