[rflrob]

I went to grad school at a unionized school (UC Berkeley), and was generally fine with the union. I never directly took advantage of the union protections, but it's nice knowing that you won't just be at the mercy of your advisor should something go wrong (though having an advisor you can trust in the first place is obviously preferable). I know people who took advantage of maternity leave, and I felt that the benefits we were provided were a cut above those at Stanford (who only recently got dental/vision coverage).

[iak8god]

> I went to grad school at a unionized school

Me too. One time the department admins decided it was too expensive to have the restrooms in the grad student offices cleaned more than once a week. We're talking about a men's room with a single toilet and a single urinal, shared by a dozens of people pulling verrry long days (some were just sleeping in their offices). The restroom was already pretty gross when it was being cleaned 3x/wk. Predictably, the change to 1x/week cleaning made things much, much worse. Honestly, it was a health hazard at that point. The administration didn't care. Faculty didn't care. Everyone could see that it was disgusting, but no amount of griping by the people who had to use those facilities had any effect.

Someone finally had the bright idea to contact the graduate student employee union steward, who was himself a graduate student in another department. He came down, took one look, and walked over to have a chat with department administration. I don't know what was said, but they resumed 3x/wk cleaning immediately.

[Obi_Juan_Kenobi]

Hey fellow former autoworker!

I also found that the grad student union was pretty well run and did reasonable things at Berkeley. If they didn't go crazy-hard-left there of all places, it seems unlikely for some of the more far-fetched scenarios to play out elsewhere.

The biggest issue I recall them addressing was health insurance for spouses and dependents of grad students, namely defending that from being cut. I think they did good work.

[nharada]

I also attended a unionized school (UMich) and I also appreciated the union. Our union frequently pushed for wage increases and other benefits, and our healthcare was absolutely stellar (basically full and free coverage for most common things, no co-pay even). Obviously not ALL of that can be attributed to the union, but I really appreciated knowing that an organization had my back.

[s3r3nity]

Curious: did unionization reduce the # of graduate students UC Berkeley was able to allow in?

This has been a common criticism I've heard, and would have potential ramifications on the long-term research pipeline if it were true + spread nationally.

[rflrob]

Not obviously, though most people I knew were in reasonably well funded departments/programs, and at any rate they were unionized well before I got there, so I wasn't around to observe any changes.

For what it's worth, I'm not convinced that the research pipeline isn't already overfull. The tenure track shouldn't be the goal of all incoming graduate students, but I think the increasing length of postdoc positions, the massive oversupply of adjunct professors, and historically low rates of grant funding are hints that there's something wrong.

[vkou]

Given the pyramid scheme nature of graduate programs, this may be a positive outcome.