“We’re paid really well, but at the same time I can’t really pay rent,” says Nadine Knight, a third-year graduate student in the English department.

And Kimberly Johnson, an organizer with the United Auto Workers (UAW) who has been coordinating graduate students’ efforts at Harvard, says financial concerns are just one of many reasons why graduate students might choose to unionize.

“For some people they want to address things like salary, but also a union is about having a say in working conditions, things like workload or having a fair grievance procedure,” she says.

Knight, who has been approached by union organizers, says she was unsure if she would support a unionization effort. “I wouldn’t sign a card because the people wouldn’t give me the info I wanted,” she says. “There’s a lot I want changed, but I’m not sure if a union would get it changed.”

Rein says the GSAS deans have been willing to respond to students concerns on most issues, making a union unnecessary.

“There’s nothing here at Harvard that’s going to galvanize students,” he says. “Life is pretty darn good here for grad students. There isn’t a specific issue that everyone is upset about.”

Slowly Organizing

Although he has not been approached to sign a card, first-year graduate student Shawn K. Mullet says that graduate students in the History of Science department discussed the issue of unionization in an e-mail exchange last month.

“For the most part, people were interested in it and says this might be something worth checking out,” he says.

Mullet says he would likely sign a card if approached but had not yet decided whether he would vote for a union at Harvard.

“I’m inclined to support it,” he says.

Once organizers obtain signatures from 30 percent of potential union members--—in this case graduate student teaching fellows and research assistants—they can file for recognition as a union from the regional office of the NLRB.

If the University protests, the regional office will rule on the union’s eligibility and will then require that a majority of eligible graduate students support unionization in a secret-ballot vote. The university has the option of protesting a regional board decision in favor of the union to a five-member national board, a process that impounds the vote results and can take months.