At the corners of Wilson Boulevard and Elmwood Avenue, one of two main entrances to UR’s River Campus, a crowd waves signs and shouts out chants as it marches in a loop along one of the intersection’s crosswalks.
UR’s graduate students are on strike.
“We love this institution, and we give so much to the students who are here,” graduate student Justin Grossman said from the picket line Tuesday. “All we’re asking for is to be treated with basic fairness and respect and dignity, and the fact that we haven’t gotten that, that we’ve gotten people constantly either stalling or just outright lying to our faces, is hurtful. I want to be able to come to work with pride, and I love the [University], and I just want it to live up to its values.”
The strike comes after a year’s worth of standstill negotiations between University administrators and graduate students, who are attempting to obtain larger stipends, a manageable workload, protections for international students, and more. For Grossman, and many other graduate students, the next step is the formation of a union.
This was not the graduate students’ first attempt to work with administration to meet their demands. According to Grossman, who was president of the Graduate Student Association last year, the Dean of Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs told him then that they would not continue to discuss concerns about stipends and W-2s
“It speaks to not even being able to listen to your voice without a union,” Grossman said. “That’s why we need it so much.”
The graduate students’ first attempt to unionize took place in December 2024 with an agreement with the University to hold a private election in which individual students could indicate support. Despite initial cooperation between the two parties, Grossman said the University later pulled back and told graduate students to attempt to form a union through the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
Although unions are often organized through the NLRB, the Board currently does not have enough members to form a quorum and make decisions.
Claire Becker, another graduate student present at the picket Tuesday, voiced a concern that going through the NLRB could result in revocation of employee status not just at UR but for graduate students across the country.
This concern stems from a rule proposed by President Trump’s previous administration that, while later withdrawn, would have removed graduate students from the definition of employee, overturning their classification as employees set in a 2016 lawsuit with Columbia and Brown Universities.
“The bottom line is [the NLRB is] not a viable option for us, and the University knows that, and they’re trying to push it through anyway,” Becker said.
The University has maintained that it is standard to go through the NLRB’s processes, and reflects previous union formations on campus. It also has stated that the administration supports PhD students and wants to work with them.
“We are steadfast in the belief that entering into a private election agreement at this time is not in the best interests of the University community,” University spokesperson Sara Miller told the Campus Times. “We have advised the [Service Employees International Union] and the students that the NLRB process remains available, as an alternative to the strike, if they want to pursue an election.”
After ultimately deciding to push for a union, graduate students held a series of protests and events aimed at addressing their disagreements with administration without the need for a strike. But after months of protests and no agreement in sight, graduate students turned to the pickets.
Graduate students began their strike Monday. According to graduate student and organizer Katie Gregory, the graduate students plan to be there every work day from eight a.m. to four p.m. until further steps are taken by administration to allow for an election to form a union. On top of the graduate students halting their own work, other unions, including Teamsters locals 118 and 317 and Roofers local 22, have stopped work for the University in support of the graduate students’ efforts.
“The biggest oomph behind a strike is the withholding of labor,” Gregory said. “We are people who perform research services, we’re people who teach, who grade, who lead recitations. Even some of the service, unpaid voluntary service roles that we do in our own departments in terms of recruitment and orientations and all of that kind of thing are forms of labor that we are currently withholding in a combination of ways across all three campuses.”
In several press releases, the University has maintained that a strike will have minimal impact on University functions, citing unspecified “contingency plans.”
“In the event of prolonged strike activity, University officials are confident that the academic enterprise will continue as normal without interruption,” Miller told the Campus Times. “We do not expect undergraduate students and those not striking to be impacted by the strike.”
The University also emphasized in a news release April 17 that no retaliatory action will be taken against lawful participants in the strike.
Mayor of Rochester Malik Evans made an appearance at the picket line Monday afternoon to voice support for graduate unionization. In a brief speech to protestors and bystanders, Evans pledged to work “behind the scenes” to aid in graduate students’ efforts.
“We wish you the best luck,” Evans told a rapt crowd. “You’re in our thoughts, you’re in our prayers.”
