Doctoral students at Duke University overwhelming voted to unionize Tuesday, giving more than 2,000 academic employees at the prestigious Durham school the right to have their pay and working conditions collectively bargained.
Ballots in the mail-in election heavily favored the union, with 1,000 votes in support to 131 votes against.
Duke Ph.D. students, who commonly work as teaching and research assistants, will be represented by the Service Employees International Union. Once certified, the new union will be one the largest in North Carolina and one of the only representing graduate students in the South.
“WE WON OUR UNION,” wrote the Duke Graduate Students Union (DGSU) on X, formerly Twitter, minutes after the final tally was announced.
Responding to the election results, Duke University Provost Alec Gallimore told The News & Observer the university “has always cared deeply about our graduate students, and we look forward to working with representatives of the Southern Region Workers United on the shared goal of making the graduate experience at Duke the very best it can be.”
North Carolina has the second lowest unionization rate in the country, with only 2.8% of workers in unions according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Because they are in a Right-to-Work state, Duke doctoral students can choose whether to pay dues if they choose to not join the union.
Pay was a prominent issue in the months-long union campaign.
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