“The University Works Because We Do”: On the Determinants of Campus Labor Organizing in the 1990s

Abstract

University campuses experienced a surge in protest activity around labor issues during the late 1990s, highlighted by several highprofile graduate employee unionization campaigns. Some scholars and activists attribute these developments to notable changes in the academy, while others note that this wave of activity coincided with revitalization efforts by the broader U.S. labor movement that included reaching out to new constituencies and college students in particular. The authors advance this discussion by analyzing the factors leading to graduate employee union organizing campaigns between 1996 and 2001. They draw from social movement and labor research to suggest how shifts in the nature of academic labor markets, local resources and opportunities for activism, and increased links between organized labor and college campuses influence the timing and location of organizing campaigns. Results from an event history analysis of campaign activity largely support these claims and highlight the importance of local resources and opportunities for campus organizing.

The Role of Graduate Student Unions in the Higher Education Landscape

“…Dixon, Tope, and Dyke () contributed to the research on graduate student unions by grounding it within the context of larger U.S. labor movements and the academic labor market. Using quantitative analysis methods, they defined which variables were likely to be conducive to successful student union mobilization efforts.…”

Academia as Workplace

“…Critical commentaries on the use of fixed‐term contracts, ‘contingent faculty’ and the exploitation of graduate teaching assistants have become commonplace (Bradley, 2004). There has been a great deal of attention to the so‐called ‘proletarianisation’ of US academic labour (Nelson, 2003; Nelson and Watt, 2004) and landmark cases such as the New York University strike (Krause et al ., 2008) and the work of the American Academy of University Professors have drawn attention to academic exploitation and the role of union activism (Hanley, 2004, Dixon et al ., 2008).…”

The challenge of an interdisciplinary curriculum: a cultural analysis of a doctoral-degree program in neuroscience

“…Graduate students are increasingly viewed as both students and employees of higher education (Dixon et al 2008;Rhoades and Rhoads 2003). While the idealized purpose of the graduate curriculum remains largely stagnant, graduate students are confronted by an uncertain academic labor market.…”