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PITTSBURGH, PA—The UE General Executive Board, which consists of 16 elected rank-and-file members from the union’s two geographic regions, along with the three elected national officers, met on January 30 and 31. The board heard reports on UE’s organizational, political action, education and international solidarity work, and made plans for the 2025 UE National Convention, which will be held in Chicago in August.
Director of Organization Mark Meinster gave the Organizational Report, a highlight of which was the successful negotiation of first contracts at Stanford University (UE Local 1043) and the University of Minnesota (UE Local 1105), which together cover almost 10,000 workers. However, at Cornell University, where UE Local 300 is still bargaining for a first contract, the administration is digging in its heels on several issues including union shop, health and safety protections, and non-discrimination language — which every other private university that UE bargains with has agreed to. “These employers feel like their hand is strengthened” by the new Trump administration, Meinster said. Nonetheless, the members at Local 300 are keeping up the fight and preparing to take action if the university does not settle a fair contract this spring.
In response to a question from Margaret Dabrowski, Local 222, about how the Trump administration is going to affect the workplace more broadly, Meinster said, “We’re going to do what we do as UE, which is to fight back. If we don’t push back then not only will the administration feel like it can do whatever it wants, but employers can opportunistically use this moment” to launch attacks on unions. Scott Slawson, Local 506, agreed, adding that the labor movement has to “have an offensive plan rather than just playing defense.”
The GEB also adopted three statements: one on the danger that Trump’s “government of billionaires” poses to the working class, one calling for continued pressure on Israel in order to achieve a “just and lasting peace in Palestine,” and one on the importance of fighting for workers’ rights in the higher education sector.
In the discussion of the statement on higher education, Ramona Malczynski, Local 1466, pointed out that “universities are an important institution in our society” and that if attacks on higher education are successful, a college degree will become even more out of reach for working-class families. She called for “working-class unity across all sectors” to defeat these attacks.
