Princeton University Graduate Students Against UE
Grad Students Say VOTE NO on PGSU & UE
Your grad student colleagues urge you to VOTE NO on PGSU & United Electrical Workers (UE) on election day.
Voting takes place 9am-1pm and 2pm-6pm on Monday 5/13 and Tuesday 5/14 in the Frist Campus Center (Rm 302) - your vote could easily be decisive.
Vote NO because:
United Electrical Workers (UE) is not a good choice for Princeton.
- Our postdocs have an opt-in UAW union, but UE forces every grad to pay ~$700/yr.
- UE will use our money and reputation to support divisive politics.
- UE is broke and relying on graduate students for a bail-out
Unionization with PGSU-UE is not worth the cost at Princeton.
- Our salaries are higher and grow faster than UE unions
- No union has negotiated changes to university housing
- Princeton supports their graduate students, even during crises
- Princeton non-financial benefits are already very strong
PGSU has failed to create informed consensus.
- PGSU canvassing caused widespread concern on campus
- We learned important information about UE only 4 days before the election
- PGSU has not been communicating with graduate students in good faith
Regardless of your views on unions generally: consider if this United Electrical Workers union is right for every Princeton grad student. If it passes, it will be very hard to go back. If you are unsure, or if any of this concerns you, please read more and vote NO.
Please join #open-union-discussion and read the pages of this website and those of grads at Cornell and MIT.
Your peers have extensively researched the facts of this election
To what extent
… can PGSU achieve their promised benefits?
… will PGSU push their political agenda?
… can PGSU actually help you?
They also conveniently ignore the possible downsides of unionization such as:
Politization and polarization of the graduate student body on the current issues.
Conservative stipend increase that can be lower than the current Princeton rate.
Decrease in the number of admitted students given the stagnant grant growth.
Legal implication and near impossibility of changing the union once it is established.
Not sure about PGSU promises or claims?
Vote NO on the election!
There is no need to rush into a decision that can have long-lasting consequences. Union election can be held every year, but once the union is established, it is very hard to decertify.
| Date | Time | Add to Google Calendar |
|---|---|---|
| Monday, May 13 | 9:00 AM - 1:00 PM 2:00 PM - 6:00 PM |
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| Tuesday, May 14 | 9:00 AM - 1:00 PM 2:00 PM - 6:00 PM |
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Early last year, one of us challenged the Princeton Graduate Students United (PGSU) promises and claims which contain rampant misinformation and half-truths, in the published Daily Princetonian op-ed: Let’s be skeptical of PGSU.
The conclusion of the article is:
… there is no precedent that suggests that PGSU can achieve what it has promised. In fact, unionization may lower expected stipend growth in the long run and use members as pawns in political agendas. The benefits that a union can actually achieve are marginal, at best.
This website aims to provide a peer-reviewed, fact-based analysis of the PGSU promises and claims. All of the information presented here is based on publicly available sources. We also encourage all of our readers to verify the information for themselves.
We also welcome any feedback or corrections which can be written directly in the comments section of each page or through email address at contact[at]towhatextent.org. You can also open an issue on our website GitHub repository or our data GitHub repository.
This website is formally named To What Extent, we have changed our name to PU Grads Against UE to better reflect our mission.