On March 15, Columbiaâs graduate student union began a three-week strike. Three days later, Harvard Graduate Students Union-United Automobile Workers met with University officials in their first bargaining session for a second contract. The following week, New York Universityâs graduate student union began voting to authorize a strike amid negotiations for its third contract â and on April 9, it voted 96.4 percent in favor.
Joe Bidenâs ascension to the White House has precipitated a flurry of activity by graduate student unions at private universities across the country, some of whom had avoided certain organizing efforts during the Trump administration amid fears that their cases would be used to shut down graduate studentsâ right to unionize altogether.