The push for graduate student unions signals a deep structural shift in academia
By Beryl Lieff BenderlyJun. 6, 2018 , 10:35 AM
Years ago, academics jokingly used to call the Ph.D. their “union card†because it provided entry to the exclusive guild of professors. You don’t hear that hoary wisecrack anymore. Some decades back, the doctorate stopped offering any assurance of a faculty job.
But these days, many graduate students working as teaching and research assistants in the United States still want a union card, only a different kind—one that will allow them to bargain collectively on pay and working conditions with the universities that pay them to teach classes, grade exams, and do the hands-on labor of their professors’ research. Unions, many graduate assistants believe, would also provide them protection against unfair or arbitrary treatment by supervisors, unexpected administrative changes in benefits, and other detrimental situations where they currently lack power.
http://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2018/06/push-graduate-student-unions-signals-deep-structural-shift-academia
