Stony Brook RA Union

On Friday September 26th we filed for a secret ballot election at the National Labor Relations Board. An overwhelming majority of RAs signed the union card in support of the union.

1) We call upon the Research Foundation to stop trying to delay
the vote with their lawyers. They are saying we don’t have the right to have a vote because we are “not workers, but rather just students.” We want the right to choose if we want a union or not, and we want this right as soon as possible.

2) We have invited the Research Foundation’s President John O’Connor to a public debate on our campus to discuss the merits of an RA Union. He has ignored us.

3) We have asked President Shirley Strum Kenny for a meeting, who has declined with this explanation.

In Solidarity,

The Stony Brook RA Organizing Committee

date: Tue, Oct 7, 2008 at 3:09 PM
subject:Research Assistants Organizing Committee

To the Research Assistants Organizing Committee:

Thank you for your letter of September 30 concerning the Research Assistants Organizing Committee.

State policy is clear on matters regarding organizing neutrality; it is equally applicable to public sector and private sector organizing activities. The University has regularly implemented this policy in regard to private sector organizing campaigns. We did, for example, when the New York State United Teachers attempted to unionize the professional staff of the Research Foundation in 2005. Therefore, the University will neither facilitate nor impede CWA’s effort to unionize the research assistants.

As you are aware, the employer in your situation is the Research Foundation, not the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Therefore, I have forwarded your letter to the Research Foundation in Albany. Any role I play in this matter is limited to taking such action as necessary to implementing the State policy regarding neutrality, and I have done so through my instruction to the Human Resource management staff.

Throughout my tenure as President, I have had to decline to meet with persons involved in organizing campaigns, and so I will respectfully decline your request to meet with me at this time. I do this to avoid the possibility that such a meeting could be misinterpreted and regarded by other parties as inconsistent with the State policy of neutrality.

Thank you for taking the time to write.

Sincerely,

Shirley Strum Kenny
President