Johns Hopkins University Graduate Workers Just Won a Union
Last week, graduate workers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore voted to form a union — with 97 percent voting in favor. Jacobin spoke to worker-organizers about how they got there and what the victory means for Hopkins graduate students.
Graduate student workers at Johns Hopkins University have just won a union. (@TRUhopkins / Twitter)
On Tuesday, January 31, and Wednesday, February 1, over two thousand graduate student workers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore voted on whether to form a union. The “yes” side won in a landslide, with 97 percent voting in favor of unionization. The graduate worker union, Teachers and Researchers United (TRU), is affiliated with the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE), which also just scored a higher ed unionization victory at Northwestern University; another affiliated union election is still underway at the University of Chicago. Last week, Jacobin’s Sara Wexler spoke with graduate worker-organizers at Johns Hopkins about the history of their organizing effort and what they’re hoping for from a contract.
Sara Wexler
When and how did the organizing around the union start?
Alex Peeples
The earliest iterations of TRU began in 2014 and 2015. An important early campaign was around health insurance. That campaign predates all of us.
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