Continuing Ed. graduate teachers to vote on union

by Daniel J. Fitzgibbons, Chronicle staff

ruling last week by the Massachusetts Labor Relations Commission has cleared the way for a unionization vote by graduate students who teach in the Division of Continuing Education.

     Leaders of the Graduate Employee Organization/United Auto Workers Local 2322, which has been seeking to represent the Continuing Education instructors, said a vote will be held this semester.

     "This is one of the most significant victories in GEO's 10-year history," said Benjamin Balthaser, a union organizer and graduate student instructor in the English Department.
"We have consistently taken the position that the appropriate forum in which to resolve this issue was the Massachusetts Labor Relations Commission," said associate provost Susan Pearson. "The commission has now ruled that the graduate students teaching in Continuing Education should vote to determine whether they wish to be added to the bargaining unit currently represented by GEO, and we will do everything appropriate to cooperate with that ruling."

     The MLRC ruling comes just five weeks after the commission dismissed a University complaint that the union encouraged a "sick-out" by Continuing Education instructors near the end of the second summer school session.

     GEO began organizing efforts in Continuing Education in March 1999. The union continued pressing for recognition for the instructors, but administration officials requested a decision from the labor commission.

     Although GEO officials contend that about 300 graduate students teach courses in Continuing Education each year, only the 40 to 50 graduate instructors teach this semester will be eligible to vote.