Thread: The article was making the rounds among my friends in the student worker space yesterday. Thought I would talk crudely about the contingent factors in these relative successes to add nuances to the "organizing works" narrative (1/n). https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/07/19/grad-student-unions-pandemic/

These contracts indeed mark great improvements from the previous conditions and highlight the importance of organizing, direct action, etc. But the successes in these cases can also be attributed to a set of employer calculations that seem less likely now.

Generally, the employers in these success stories elected to recognize that student workers are protected by NLRA generally, potentially due to the then perceived uncertainty the surrounding NLRB litigation.

For example, in fall 2016, @Harvard did not choose to contest the notion that student workers are protected by NLRA before the NLRB at all, potentially in anticipation of the election of Hillary and a democratic NLRB.

When the anti-worker Trump NLRB was taking shape, @BrownUniversity and @Georgetown entered private agreements with the grad unions entirely outside the NLRB process that offer recognition in exchange for a waiver on NLRB charges and limits on the scope of bargaining.

That leads us to the case of @Columbia, which did contest NLRA protection for student workers. But the Dem NLRB under Obama ruled against it and litigation was pending before the appellate court.

@Columbia ultimately recognized their grad and postgrad unions, but that is largely because of a combination of 1) uncertainly before the appellate court, 2) new organizing of hundreds of postgrad workers and their coordination with grad workers, and 3) credible strike threats

Grad workers in @Columbia pulled off an effective strike during finals week of the spring semester. And along with the hundreds of newly organized postgrad workers, they threatened an indefinite strike in the fall.

Then @Columbia finally agreed to a "framework agreement" that similarly exchange recognition for certain limits on their grad and postgrad unions.

In contrast to these relative successes, student workers fared worse when the employers decided to argue that they were not workers under the NLRA at all at an earlier point in the NLRB process, under the Trump NLRB.

In these cases, student workers typically won at the regional level mostly staffed by career officials and often their NLRB elections, but they had to withdraw their recognition petition after their schools appealed to the anti-worker Trump NLRB.

Examples under this camp include grad workers at
@UChicagoNews and undergrad workers at @Reed_College_ and @GrinnellCollege
(a campaign I was heavily involved in). Despite much organizing and direct action, these student workers still have not won recognition.

As time went by, it became clear that the Trump NLRB's *proactively* undermining the labor movement, including the student worker movement. A final rule that formally excludes most student workers is expected to be published in September.

This also incentivizes schools that already recognize their student worker unions to withdraw their recognition or to flat-out violate the NLRA (e.g. refusing to bargain, firing workers for organizing, etc.).

Because the legal channel for remedies for these transgressions is to file an Unfair Labor Practice charge before the NLRB, which may ultimately make a precedent formally denying student workers any protection. So complaining before the NLRB jeopardizes the recognition win.

Schools like @Harvard are not cynical enough to withdraw recognition altogether, but the Trump NLRB hands them a meaningful edge in contract negotiation.

Anyways the overall takeaway is that these contract wins are partially thanks to their timely avoidance of the Trump NLRB. Their great organizing work contributed to the avoidance (e.g. by forcing employers to reach private recognition agreements).

However, this logic operates worse now given the ever clear certainty that NLRB will not save student workers and employers are less likely to reach any compromise on recognition. *Much more* organizing is required to overcome this dynamic.

That's why many student worker organizers are considering fight for 15 style issue campaigns in lieu of recognition campaigns and formal collective bargaining. Yes organizing works and direct action gets the goods. But we must be clear-eyed about the challenges that face us now.

Anyways, solidarity forever (end of thread).