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Monday, July 28, 2025

LETTER TO THE EDITOR | Correct the Record on CGSU-UE ‘Union Shop’ Position

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We write as attorneys involved in the negotiations between the University and the Cornell Graduate Student Union-United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, or CGSU-UE, in response to the Jan. 31 Letter to the Editor submitted by several School of Industrial and Labor Relations faculty members. We appreciate the faculty members’ academic expertise and interest in this matter and respectfully seek to correct the record about the University’s position and Interim President Michael Kotlikoff and Provost Kavita Bala’s Jan. 23 statement.   

The ILR professors claim that CGSU-UE’s proposal for a union shop provision that requires paying union dues is akin to paying “agency fees,” noting that the law permits union bargaining unit members to pay a “fee” to the union rather than become a union member under the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1988 decision in Communication Workers of America v. Beck.  

We do not dispute the technical legal analysis offered by the ILR professors, but their commentary ignores facts from the negotiating room. 

Make no mistake. At the bargaining table, the CGSU-UE has consistently insisted solely on a union shop provision. In fact, the CGSU-UE bargaining team has been unwavering in its position demanding universal membership of all graduate students in the bargaining unit as the crux of the rationale for their proposal.

Don’t believe us? See the Instagram posts by the CGSU-UE where they say exactly that — that the union demands a “union shop” with “universal full membership of the whole bargaining unit.” 

None of the distinctions drawn in the faculty’s letter negate the fact that under the union’s proposal, all graduate assistants would be required to financially support the union as a condition of holding an assistantship. Cornell believes graduate students should be entitled to choose whether to become members of the CGSU-UE and/or financially support the union. Graduate students also should have the right to decide whether they want their money to fund, directly or indirectly, the political causes and activities supported by the union without risking the termination of their assistantships.

No one should be forced to choose between pursuing their academic degree and joining, or financially supporting, an organization that espouses views with which they disagree. It’s the antithesis of freedom of choice and expression that are the hallmarks of Cornell University. 

Despite CGSU-UE’s insistence on a union shop clause, the ILR professors correctly note that the law permits graduate students to object to union membership, and instead only pay the portion of union dues related to union representation. The process for doing so, however, is a union governance issue that may not be readily apparent to graduate students, especially as they toggle between being in and out of the CGSU-UE bargaining unit during their pursuit of a Cornell degree. Even if a graduate student objects, they still will have to financially support the union. And, CGSU-UE has not mentioned this right in their proposal or on Instagram — instead, demanding union membership for all. These are the types of issues that typically get discussed at the bargaining table, and we look forward to continuing these discussions there. 

Shannon Buffum ’05, associate general counsel of Cornell University

Paul Salvatore ’81 J.D. ’84, partner at Proskauer Rose LLP

Steven J. Porzio, partner at Proskauer Rose LLP


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