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What I've Been Reading This Week: Cornell Union Election Edition


It has been a few months since I have seen a union election get a significant deal of attention.  However, with the recent graduate student voting having occurred this past Monday and Tuesday at Cornell and the subsequent "too close to call" announcement, I thought it would be appropriate to highlight this topic.

As always, below are a couple articles that caught my eye this week.



Perhaps one of the least surprising developments occurred before the union election even occurred:  the Cornell Graduate Students United ("CGSU") and Cornell administration filed grievances in regard to disputed activities ahead of Monday's vote.  As Josh Girsky over at The Cornell Daily Sun writes, CGSU filed a grievance in regard to statements by Senior Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School Barbara Knuth which suggested fewer graduate students would be hired if unionization were to occur.  The Cornell administration, on the other hand, filed a grievance and alleged that CGSU and its affiliates were coercing voters.  Interesting to see how these grievances play out...especially depending upon the outcome of the election.



Anna Delwiche and Josh Girsky wrote a great article earlier this week with a report that the results of the election remained too close to call, with 81 ballots hanging in the balance.  At the time of their article, 856 votes were cast in favor of unionization while 919 votes were cast against.  The issue centers around 81 ballots that remained in dispute:  65 ballots were challenged and would be discussed later, 6 absentee ballots were not yet opened, with an additional 10 unresolved challenged ballots.  Although the article covers the results well, I did want to highlight this article in particular because of the well established time line of how this union election came about.  Well worth the read.


Dean Barbara Knuth Releases Statement Calling Election "Inconclusive"

On Wednesday, Dean Barbara Knuth (yes, the same Dean mentioned in the above note) released a statement in which she called the election results "inconclusive" and that after a review in the next month, the final outcome will be made on the results of the election.  I would say this response coincides with the "too close to call" that was referenced above...there are still approximately 81 ballots that remain in dispute.  Per Dean Knuth's note, I would expect this to get sorted out in the coming weeks.  Stay tuned.

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