WFHB Bloomington Community Radio
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On Monday, the Bloomington Faculty Council passed two resolutions calling on the IU Board of Trustees to provide a pathway to unionization for the Indiana Graduate Workers Coalition-United Electrical Workers.
The first resolution passed with nearly 84 percent of the faculty council vote, and it insists that graduate students would not face retaliation by the university for striking. The second resolution instructs the IU administration to create a pathway for union recognition for the IGWC-UE.
Katie Shy, PhD student in English and media correspondent for the Indiana Graduate Workers Coalition, walked through the significance of these two resolutions.
“One of the major turning points this semester, was the provost threatening to fire all striking graduate workers,” says Shy. “And this resolution really responds to that move, and asserts that departments are the one equipped to evaluate if a grad worker should be reappointed.”
According to their web page, the Bloomington Faculty Council is “an elected policy-making body responsible for exercising faculty authority on the Bloomington campus.”
Shy explained what support from the Bloomington Faculty Council means for the grad workers.
“This is as strong of a message as we can send to the board of trustees that the Bloomington campus is ready for the Grad Workers Coalition to represent grad workers,” said Shy.
The Indiana Graduate Workers Coalition went on strike from April 13th through May 9th. Shy described her major takeaways on how the strike played out,
“Although we haven’t seen the material improvements that we’re still fighting for, we’re in a really strong position heading into the fall to keep working on each other’s behalf,” she said.
The board of trustees has yet to formally recognize the union. Shy speculated what it will take to finally gain the recognition they’re looking for.
“It’s really hard to say with any degree of confidence, but we’re hoping that this extremely strong message from the faculty vote will really push the board of trustees to begin that process of either recognizing our union straight out, or giving us that Union Election where we can democratically express our will to be represented,” said Shy.
The graduate workers postponed the strike earlier this month with plans to begin the strike again in the fall. Shy talked about what’s next for the Indiana Graduate Workers Coalition.
“We have this strike deadline of September 26 2022, and we’re really hoping that we’ll be able to enter into a constructive dialogue with the administration before then, but also really excited about the strength of our membership and the strength of the next collective action,” she said.
If you would like to hear more about the strike, WFHB News conducted a series of interviews and field recordings featuring more voices from the Indiana Graduate Workers Coalition in a segment titled Strike Mic.
