Today marks the last day graduate assistants can drop of their union ballots at the state Bureau of Mediation Services.
Ballots will be tallied tomorrow morning and the bureau will announce the result of the University graduate assistants union election .
For a union to be implemented, 50 percent plus one of the ballots mailed in must vote for the Graduate Student Organizing Congress collective bargaining unit. As of Thursday, 2,524 of the roughly 4,000 eligible voters had mailed in ballots.
If a union is created, GradSOC will hold a mass membership meeting later in the month to create a platform and elect representatives for future bargaining with University administrators.
The conclusion of the election comes after an eight-month campaign effort by GradSOC to rally support for a union, which they say could help improve graduate assistant compensation and health care at the University.
To gain a union election, GradSOC held a signature drive to ensure there was enough support. In February, when the organization turned in the signatures, 2,500 graduate assistants had signed cards saying they want a union election — easily exceeding the necessary 30 percent.
— Kelly Hildebrandt