Around 1,000 graduate student workers at Indiana University’s Bloomington campus are on strike to demand the school recognize them as a union. But the school said it has no intention of bargaining with the group – and no legal obligation to do so.
The Indiana Graduate Workers Coalition-United Electrical Workers began the week-long strike on Wednesday. The strike includes in-person picket lines and labor education events scattered around campus.
They say with recognition, graduate workers could better bargain for an end to an annual $700 student fee and better wages.
The strike comes after IU denied a petition from roughly 1,600 graduate workers earlier this year asking that the school recognize the union and hold an election per its policy for staff. The university said that’s because the graduate students – who grade papers, teach classes, and conduct research – aren’t traditional employees but "student academic appointees" instead.
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Many of the striking student workers disagree with that characterization.
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