Free speech award? Not for a university that’s silencing its grad workers union
by Grant MacDonald
When I discovered that University of Chicago President Robert Zimmer was set to receive the John Peter Altgeld Freedom of Speech Award on behalf of the University of Chicago, I assumed that Zimmer had fallen victim of a satirical skit. Perhaps Sacha Baron Cohen had brought his latest show to Chicago? That the award was in fact delivered in full sincerity is testament to Zimmer’s success in absurdly, shamelessly cultivating an image of the university as a bastion of free speech, while outright ignoring the democratic decision of graduate workers to form a union. Thankfully, colleagues of mine were on hand to remind him and Chicago of this fact, holding a banner behind him during his acceptance speech that read, “WE VOTED GSU, #BARGAIN NOW.”
There’s no doubt that Zimmer and the board have had a large degree of success in projecting an image of the university as a defender of “free speech.” Especially since sending a letter to the incoming class of 2016 that proclaimed UChicago as an institution devoid of safe spaces, the university has been held up as an example in certain quarters. The letter, and other incidents such as the invitation of Steve Bannon to campus, have garnered praise for Zimmer and UChicago from the likes of the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and the far right.
It pays, too. In November 2017, the department of economics received a donation of $125 million from Kenneth Griffin, the second-largest financial donation ever made to the university. Griffin, who has previously donated to the campaigns of Bruce Rauner, Marco Rubio and Scott Walker, specifically cited the university’s “commitment to free expression” as a reason for making the donation to UChicago.
While the university promotes its brand to potential donors and right-wing bloggers, graduate workers at the university know the reality does not match up. In October last year, graduate employees at UChicago voted decisively, by more than 2 to 1 (1,103 to 479), to be represented by our union, Graduate Students United. We made it clear that we want to collectively bargain a contract, so that we can have a say in our working conditions and in the decisions that affect us, our students and the wider university community. Sadly, we have learned that UChicago is more interested in working with the Trump administration to silence us rather than working with us at the bargaining table.
Let’s remember that from the very beginning the university administration fought doggedly to shut down debate. Zimmer, who developed credentials as a union buster during his time as provost at Brown, sent out an email calling for a “thorough, well-informed” debate on the issue while simultaneously assembling a team of professional union-busting lawyers tasked with rendering debate irrelevant. The university has spent untold sums on a team of lawyers from Proskauer Rose, a firm notorious for its penchant for Big Oil and union busting. After graduate workers filed a petition for unionization, the administration argued in a regional Labor Board hearing that we should be denied a vote on the matter.
The absurd case rested on an attempt by the university to argue that graduate teaching and research assistants are not workers. Although their lawyers deployed some impressively brazen semantic-gymnastics — at one point interjecting, “Objection. They are not working. They are teaching.” — they lost their case and an election date was set.
Of course, the university filed an appeal, and when graduate workers decisively voted to unionize, the administration refused to respect the result. Instead, they continued to work through the courts, knowing that the election of Donald Trump would tip the balance of the National Labor Relations Board in favor of an anti-worker agenda. While the university continued to talk to their lawyers and not us, we proceeded in good faith with preparing to collectively bargain for a contract, as graduate workers voted for us to do. We elected stewards and officers, developed a new constitution, and surveyed our members on their experiences and needs as workers at UChicago.
In February, when we submitted our request to bargain, the university reiterated its plan to silence us through the courts. In April, we submitted our demand to bargain, and the university responded by telling us that it had no intention to bargain a contract with “an undefined group of graduate assistants” (a bewildering and disingenuous turn of phrase).
Initial bargaining survey results underline that the university cannot meet the needs of grads — who are fundamental to the running of labs and classrooms — without including us in the decision-making process. For example, 37 percent of grad workers who are parents report being “very unhappy” with their child care stipend, and none were “very happy” with the provision of diaper-changing and lactation spaces. Other results released so far highlight the insecurity and precariousness that can be a feature of life as a grad worker. This is the reality when platitudes about free speech stand in place of cooperation and democratic engagement.
Furthermore, free-speech champion UChicago now stands increasingly isolated in its determination to refuse graduate workers a seat at the bargaining table, as its peers are lining up to work together with their grads. New York University has long had a recognized graduate union, and recently, other private institutions such as Harvard, Brown and Georgetown have outdone UChicago by agreeing to respect the outcome of the democratic process.
Guardians of free speech do not relentlessly block the democratic process when it’s expedient for them. They do not then ignore the democratic outcome when they do not like the result. They do not prefer to legally maneuver and work with the Trump administration rather than work with graduate workers to improve their workplace. An institution deserving of a free speech award does not ignore its workers’ mandate to bargain a contract. President Zimmer, if you and the University of Chicago are the guardians of free speech that the awards and gushing op-eds suggest, don’t silence us — bargain with us. Now.
Grant MacDonald is a Ph.D. candidate and graduate worker in the department of the geophysical sciences at UChicago (seen in the field, at right) and a member of Graduate Students United. This post originally appeared under his name on Medium. To get more news from the AFT, sign up for one of our e-newsletters.
