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BU faces two unfair labor charges amidst graduate student strike
The university maintains that the charges will be found to be without merit.
The Boston University Graduate Workers Union is claiming that BU has engaged in multiple unfair labor practices since the union began its strike in March.
BUGWU has been picketing across campus asking for “a livng wage” and other concessions from their institution. Graduate workers are responsible for various tasks across campus depending on their program, including running classes on their own, conducting research, and attending conferences on BU’s behalf.
Since the strike began on March 25, graduate workers have cited various obstacles in the bargaining process, accusing the institution of offering counter-proposals with what workers deem to be an unlivable wage.
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Recently, BUGWU claimed that BU violated fair labor standards. The SEIU Local 509 filed two separate unfair labor practice charges against the institution, one on March 26 and the other on April 5.
The university maintains that upon investigation, the charges of unfair labor practices will be found to be without merit.
Self-attested hours go unpaid, union claims
One of the first issues arose when BU required workers to fill out a self-attestation form to report the hours they worked. While there is no way for administrators, in most cases, to confidently know who is striking, pay has been withheld even from students who faithfully attest their hours, the union claims.
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The union refers to this “unilateral” process as inherently problematic. BUGWU states that the wording of the form makes it so some graduate workers can not submit hours without committing fraud.
At one point, according to the union’s press release, an administrator sent an email out to students in the medical sciences program with the names and immigration status of workers who did not complete the attestation, publicly revealing a protected status.
According to the union, the institution has not yet addressed the needs of students who attest their hours but are not receiving pay.
Intimidation, harassment, coercion alleged
Beyond the lack of pay, graduate workers are also claiming instances of intimidation, surveillance, and harassment. Students putting up union fliers say they have been chased down by administration, while certain departments (specifically, the Center for Computing & Data Sciences) enforced flier restrictions in their building, the union says.
Graduate workers also report that their private offices have been “raided” for any materials or decorations promoting the union. Others report that some personal items have been taken as well, although the union states that the Dean of Arts and Sciences told department heads the raids would cease.
Classroom concerns
And as the semester comes to an end, many graduate instructors of record (those who facilitate a class entirely on their own) are concerned about the state of their classrooms.
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During the strike, BU has replaced graduate workers with other administrators, professors, and deans who are tasked with grading student’s work. In at least one case, a replacement occurred without the dean’s knowledge, the union claims.
Some of the graduate workers say they were removed from their course’s online Blackboard page, while others say they lost access to the faculty link that allows them to input final grades.
Graduate workers say they are upset that, rather than meeting their demands, the school is allowing students to be instructed and graded by teachers they do not know. In some cases, students have received emails stating they are responsible for grading their own work, according to the union.
The press release also cites that some student work may be deeply personal.
“My class is on a sensitive subject, the depiction of rape in Greco-Roman mythology, and we spent weeks as a class creating a community where we could openly talk about this topic, a community based on trust,” said Alicia Matz, a graduate instructor of record.
In an open letter to the provost and president of BU, faculty state that grading students is not the same thing as teaching them.
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“It will be impossible for this new person to fairly and fully evaluate my students’ growth at this point and [it] disappoints me to see BU seemingly abandon its espoused mission for the sake of undermining our demands for better working and learning conditions,” said Maggie Boyd, a graduate worker and instructor of record.
The university declined to respond to specific allegations on the part of the union, but in a written statement to Boston.com, BU media relations stated, “The University has been bargaining in good faith with the Union throughout this process, and we believe that these charges will be found to be without merit once they are investigated.”
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