University of Alaska graduate student workers vote overwhelmingly to unionize

After a two week voting period, University of Alaska graduate student employees officially voted to form a union. With 314 votes in favor and 11 opposed, the vote to create the Alaskan Graduate Workers Association union was officially certified on Nov. 2.

This vote comes a little less than a year after the Alaskan Graduate Workers Association filed a petition for recognition with the Alaska Labor Relations Agency on Dec. 9. Afterward, there was significant back and forth between the University of Alaska and the Alaskan Graduate Workers Association on who would be included in the union.

It wasn’t until August that a final agreement was reached, and an election was scheduled for Oct. 13 through Oct 26.

‍In a previous article, The Northern Light covered messaging by the University of Alaska  that warned that a union might be “one-size-fits-all” and may not be in students’ best interests. Union organizers disagreed, saying that the university’s claims were “blatantly false” or “partial truths.”

A more in-depth list of University of Alaska and Alaskan Graduate Workers Association claims can be found in the article.

Both the University of Alaska and the Alaskan Graduate Workers Association encouraged eligible students to vote.

‍According to a statement from the Alaskan Graduate Workers Association, 434 graduate student employees were eligible to vote. With 314 voting in favor, 72% of eligible employees made clear that they want a union.

Following the vote, Chief Human Resources Officer Memry Dahl wrote in a UA-wide email sent on Oct. 27 that “After certification, university leadership looks forward to bargaining with the new unit in the future.”

According to a press release by the Alaskan Graduate Workers Association and the United Auto Workers union – which the Alaskan Graduate Workers Association and many other graduate employee unions have affiliated with – “AGWA/UAW is the largest new bargaining unit in the state of Alaska in ten years.”

In that same press release, UAF Graduate Research Assistant in

Biology and Wildlife Caitlyn Oliver Brown was quoted as saying: “We formed our union one conversation and one worker at a time, and made sure people had accurate information about what it means to form a union. Now, we’re looking forward to channeling this support and energy into creating a stronger UA together at the bargaining table — one which allows us to focus on the research we love and the contributions we make.”

In an interview with the Northern Light, UAA-based union organizer Sofia Sytniak said that the next step is bargaining with the university.

“We are sending out bargaining surveys to all graduate student workers who are a part of the union to get an idea of things that everyone wants to be addressed … by our first contract negotiations,” said Sytniak.

Sytniak said that the largest issues that the union hopes to address are increased healthcare benefits and higher pay. She said that – through surveys – they’ve also learned about other issues that are important to graduate student employees.

The Alaskan Graduate Workers Association is also working on creating a bargaining committee – an elected group of members who would bargain with the University of Alaska Administration for graduate student contracts.

There are 15 positions listed on the Alaskan Graduate Workers Association website, 12 of which are for UAF students. There are two positions for UAA students and one position for a student at any college.

According to the site, they have selected the number of positions based on the numbers of graduate student employees at each campus.

If more than one person runs for the same position, an election will be held from Nov. 14th to Nov. 16th.

More information on bargaining updates and future bargaining schedules can be found on the Alaskan Graduate Workers Association website.