As education leaders debate the cost and accessibility of a bachelor’s degree at the University of Minnesota, the number of students entering graduate school there has been quietly dropping. The state’s research powerhouse has seen overall enrollment by slide by 9 percent over the past five years, eroded by a poor economy and unstable government Read more →
From the University of Minnesota’s Web site. The Bureau of Mediation Services has confirmed this, but I haven’t received a written ruling yet. I also have a call out to a graduate-assistant rep. Graduate Assistants, The Bureau of Mediation Services dismissed the Charge of Unfair Election Practices filed by United Auto Workers (UAW) against the Read more →
The state Bureau of Mediation Services has announced (above) how it will handle some graduate-assistants’ complaint of unfair election practices against the University of Minnesota. The U’s summary: The procedure and timeline are as follows: The union will provide information and evidence regarding their charge by April 23 The University will provide a written response Read more →
Just in from the Minnesota Daily: Graduate assistants at the University of Minnesota voted against forming a union 1,857 to 1,142, according to results released by the Bureau of Mediation Services Monday. Read the (short) article here. Update: Those initial numbers are right. In last week’s voting, 62 percent of those who cast ballots rejected Read more →
University of Minnesota graduate assistants are wrapping up week-long voting on whether to unionize. The students will finish casting their votes today Friday (today), and the results could come as soon as Monday. Union supporters say they want a voice in decisions over pay and working conditions, which they say are uneven across departments — and Read more →
“Things are extremely polarized in terms of union organizing. Any attempt is going to be very contentious.” — Hamline University employment-law professor David Larson to the Minnesota Daily on the national atmosphere around union organizing — just as the U’s graduate assistants vote this week on whether they’ll form a union. Read the full story Read more →
The group of graduate students trying to organize at the University of Minnesota has been working today to bring about a student vote on whether to unionize. It’s taking a two-pronged approach now that a majority of the U’s 4,500 graduate assistants have signed union-authorization cards, spokesman Scott Thaller told me. First, the group is asking Read more →
Just an update in the efforts by a group of University of Minnesota graduate students to form a union. Last month, I tweeted from a grad-student forum that some students were saying they’d received an administration memo claiming that union organizers were intimidating students in an effort to get them to join. Below are two Read more →
Alex Friedrich