MIT Graduate Students Vote to Unionize

Plans to form a union affiliated with the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America were approved by a vote of 1,785 to 912.

Written byCatherine Offord

| 2 min read

Building 10 on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Image credit:© ISTOCK.COM, GREGOBAGEL

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Graduate students at MIT have this week voted to unionize, with 1,785 votes cast for the move and 912 against it. The poll, which was held on Monday and Tuesday (April 4–5), sought approval to form a union affiliated with the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE), and tapped into a range of student issues including affordable housing and better health insurance.

Announcing the win in a tweet yesterday, the MIT Graduate Student Union wrote: “What started 4 years ago with a dozen students in an MIT classroom discussing the needs of graduate workers has culminated in this historic victory for student-workers at MIT.”

The university’s official account replied: “We congratulate the members of the MIT GSU on their dedicated work that led to this election. MIT’s representatives expect to meet with MIT GSU and UE leaders to begin good-faith negotiations over the terms and conditions of ...

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Meet the Author

Catherine Offord
After undergraduate research with spiders at the University of Oxford and graduate research with ants at Princeton University, Catherine left arthropods and academia to become a science journalist. She has worked in various guises at The Scientist since 2016. As Senior Editor, she wrote articles for the online and print publications, and edited the magazine’s Notebook, Careers, and Bio Business sections. She reports on subjects ranging from cellular and molecular biology to research misconduct and science policy. Find more of her work at her website.
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