Graduate student Brennan Maier insisted that organizing was a right of graduate students, an assertion supported by the NLRB.

“Asking graduate students why they want a union so much is rather like asking someone why she wants freedom of speech,” Maier wrote in an e-mail. “We want them because they’re our rights. Period.”

Critics contend that GESO is not democratic—especially in light of the fact that only 482 members voted to strike.

But Seth said the strike vote—decided by a 77 percent majority of those present at the meeting—was made by an “unusually high” margin.

In a precedent-setting Oct. 2000 decision, the NLRB allowed graduate students at NYU to organize.

Though unions at Brown University, Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania have held NLRB elections, the ballots were impounded due to university challenges. An election at Cornell University failed to garner the necessary majority vote to establish a graduate student union.

But GESO members hope to avoid similar delays by obtaining university recognition before holding an NLRB election.

“We know we have a lot of support for a union on campus, and we’re trying to find a democratic way that would allow us to express that support,” Seth said. “Having an election where the ballots do not get counted will undermine that support.”

Yale President Richard C. Levin—known as a leading figure opposed to graduate student organizing—will likely contest results from an NLRB election, GESO organizers said.

Conroy said the university would not consider the unions’ proposal of letting GESO conduct its own election.

“This is not mandatory, and so we will not consider it,” he said. “It’s an election with one candidate and no debate.”

An NLRB confidential election “free of coercion or intimidation” is the only result the university will honor, he said.

History Lesson

Since the last contract expired, the union and university have been agreeing to stopgap monthly contracts while negotiating for the long-term.

Throughout the week, labor leaders have assailed Yale for its history of contentious labor relations, criticizing the university for not moving from its original wage offer.