NBC News, June 8, 2019: The latest campus battle: Graduate students are fighting to unionize
For three days this week, University of Chicago graduate students went on strike to demand the school voluntarily recognize their union.
Hundreds of people turned out to protest, chanting “recognize our election” and holding signs with slogans like “Workers’ Rights are Human Rights.”
Claudio Gonzáles, who is pursuing a doctorate in mathematics at the University of Chicago, was among them. “Our health care is inadequate,” Gonzáles told NBC News. “I have a chronic condition, and I should be able to see a doctor regularly for it, but I can’t afford it.”
Gonzáles and his peers have been actively organizing for more than two years, and at this point, they’re sick of the university ignoring their demands. They say they are faced with inadequate health care, high rent, a wage that hasn’t kept up with the cost of living, irregular pay, and unaffordable child care. And they aren’t alone.
