When your organizing committee takes just four weeks to sign up 400 people who will vote for the union, you know success is just around the corner. That's what happened at Western Michigan University, where graduate employees turned out April 19 to vote 290 to 14 in favor of Teaching Assistants' Union/AFT

The main issues driving the vote were job security, salary and health benefits. Amanda Bellino, a member of the organizing committee, decided she’d work to unionize when her international graduate employee colleagues in the Spanish Department almost went home due to lack of funds. Organizer Eric Gato cites the recognition a union brings as the most compelling reason to organize. With this election, all of the large public universities in are unionized. [Barbara McKenna]

April 21, 2006