Graduate students at UNH are unionizing, according to NHPR.
This is the end of long-term efforts for union recognition, with the students working with the United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers union (UAW), says NHPR.
I think this is wonderful. It is important we recognise graduate students do important work for universities, not just UNH. These students are aiding in important research, whether it be pharmaceutical research, agricultural, etc. So at the very least do they not deserve a seat at the table regarding their pay? Especially at the institution in which they are unfortunately paying a large sum of money to further their education. I would certainly say so.
This leads to a broader conversation on unionization in general. I am very interested in and excited that the student group has decided to work with the UAW. The UAW has seen a real revitalization under its current leader, Shawn Fain.
Fain has been a very militant labor leader, authorizing the 2023 United Auto Workers Strike, which had successfully given roughly 100,000 American workers a much needed raise.
This is an important shift of American labor politics, returning to old school labor that fought for its workers. This next statement may be controversial, so I would like my comrades on the left and conservatives to buckle up. I think that the statement Make America Great Again, and solely the statement, is fair and resonant. With that said, I do not support the movement or the people leading said movement.
However, I would argue the people feel they have been cheated for the past 40 years and the MAGA movement is that suffering coming to a head in an ugly way.
In the golden age of American economic expansion from the 1950s to the 1970s America had strong union numbers. With those strong numbers came far more economic equality and economic freedom for the lower and middle classes, save minorities.
Hopefully, this is a potential return of the American labor movement and with a far more open-minded public regarding race and gender, we can make the tent a little bigger as well. I am glad that the UAW is coming to UNH. It is certainly a step in the right direction.
Timothy Fitzpatrick can be contacted at
tfitzpatrick@kscequinox.com
