740 Research Assistants Join CWA

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/12/15/740-research-assistants-join-cwa/

by James Parks, Dec 15, 2008

Research assistants at the State University of New York (SUNY) Research Foundation at Stony Brook overcame management’s strong anti-union effort, voting to join the Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 1104 earlier this month.


Research Assistants at Stony Brook University/SUNY celebrate after voting for CWA.


The 740 research assistants (RAs), all doctoral students, are seeking better pay and benefits and fairer treatment from a university administration they say has continually claimed it could not afford to pay them a more livable wage. The workers are particularly aggrieved over a $500 transportation and technology fee that the institution charges them each semester—a fee that has been waived for graduate and teaching assistants at Stony Brook, who are represented by Local 1104.

After the vote, Matt Engle, a member of the organizing committee, told Newsday:

It doesn’t sound like a big deal, but for a lot of RAs making $20,000 a year, $1,000 is a lot. Basically, there has never been a negotiated raise for RAs ever.

Local 1104 now represents more than 4,000 graduate and teaching assistants at Stony Brook and in the SUNY system.

Although affiliated with SUNY, the privately managed Research Foundation resorted to captive audience meetings, one-on-ones, and other tactics to squelch the RAs’ campaign. Management also sought to delay or even block the election by challenging earlier National Labor Relations Board decisions that allow research assistants the right to organize.

FULL story at link.