4 ms·

Elect leadership. Who then negotiates with the faculty.

by urthor 5y ago

gruez 5y ago
What leverage do they have? Worker's unions work because they can threaten to withhold labor. Are those students seriously going to not attend MIT? An institution as prestigious as MIT probably has no trouble finding replacements.
- hiptobecubic 5y ago
  "MIT fires entire graduate student body in union-busting move" is probably not a great look for them.
  - sjg007 5y ago
    The would use the term "expells" because they want to say they are students and not employees.
    - stale2002 5y ago
      At which point there would be a lawsuit, and they would lose the lawsuit. Labor labors are an established thing. If a union is approved by the government, then they would have protections.
- willis936 5y ago
  When you run a research group: one student leaving is no big deal, every student leaving is a catastrophe. Who's going to fund you when you have no one to do the work? It takes years to get grad students up to speed. All wind is drained from the sails and you need to waste your precious time rebuilding. All because you didn't want to treat your workers like humans.
- ethbr0 5y ago
  Withhold work via a strike? See how many labs run and MIT grants are retained without a graduate student labor force.
  - caddemon 5y ago
    Except withholding research work also means ceasing degree progress in practice. For some types of work it could mean setting degree progress back months - experiments can be very time sensitive in some fields, and thesis committee will often require certain experiments to graduate. TAs striking has been somewhat effective, but RAs mostly don't actually strike.
- danuker 5y ago
  Same kind of thinking led to empires breaking up. Failure to accept feedback makes for a fragile institution. Since the students decided to unionize, clearly their issues are not being heard, and a union will have a much stronger public voice than any individual student, perhaps on par with the university's brand and PR campaigns.
- urthor 5y ago
  Lack of relevancy is no major obstacle to the formation of any sort of political body.

Elect leadership. Who then negotiates with the faculty.

by urthor 5y ago

Elect leadership. Who then negotiates with the faculty.

What leverage do they have? Worker's unions work because they can threaten to withhold labor. Are those students seriously going to not attend MIT? An institution as prestigious as MIT probably has no trouble finding replacements.

hiptobecubic 5y ago
"MIT fires entire graduate student body in union-busting move" is probably not a great look for them.
- sjg007 5y ago
  The would use the term "expells" because they want to say they are students and not employees.
  - stale2002 5y ago
    At which point there would be a lawsuit, and they would lose the lawsuit. Labor labors are an established thing. If a union is approved by the government, then they would have protections.
willis936 5y ago
When you run a research group: one student leaving is no big deal, every student leaving is a catastrophe. Who's going to fund you when you have no one to do the work? It takes years to get grad students up to speed. All wind is drained from the sails and you need to waste your precious time rebuilding. All because you didn't want to treat your workers like humans.
ethbr0 5y ago
Withhold work via a strike? See how many labs run and MIT grants are retained without a graduate student labor force.
- caddemon 5y ago
  Except withholding research work also means ceasing degree progress in practice. For some types of work it could mean setting degree progress back months - experiments can be very time sensitive in some fields, and thesis committee will often require certain experiments to graduate. TAs striking has been somewhat effective, but RAs mostly don't actually strike.
danuker 5y ago
Same kind of thinking led to empires breaking up. Failure to accept feedback makes for a fragile institution. Since the students decided to unionize, clearly their issues are not being heard, and a union will have a much stronger public voice than any individual student, perhaps on par with the university's brand and PR campaigns.
urthor 5y ago
Lack of relevancy is no major obstacle to the formation of any sort of political body.