Stony Brook RA Union

What do they want? A fair and equal contract for every Research Assistant. When do they want it? Last semester, actually. Since the union’s establishment at the end of the Fall 2008 semester, members of the Communication Workers of America Local 1104 have been actively working to ensure fairer wages, more favorable benefits and better job security for Research Assistants at Stony Brook University.

Amidst reports of anti-union campaigning by the Research Foundation, the private entity that employs the RA’s, graduate students here at Stony Brook voted to unionize in December 2008. Soon after, union organizers set to work on a contract for RA’s that was on their terms. “[Our goal is] a contract with a robust grievance procedure that ensures that RAs are treated fairly and protected from exploitive or inappropriate treatment by our employers,” said Zvi Citron, an RA in the physics department and member of the bargaining committee. To date, however, organizers have met with a dismissive and unresponsive RF.

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