In honor of Trump taking my jobs

Here are 47 reasons Not to join or form your union

Here is a list of all of the reasons I’ve been told as to why I should stop

a). asking people to join the union

b). talking about issues at all

c). using union to address issues

TBH tho Fight systems not people.

I genuinely enjoy engaging with people on grad student workplace issues, whether they agree or not. Sometimes you find some really interesting gems of human psyche, or have a stimulating conversation. Sometimes I get interrupted a lot and sort of pushed around. You never know what you’ll get. The important thing is to try, and listen. I am working on listening. The other important thing when you encounter these ideas to note them and move on, keep going. You can’t let them stop ya. Trump’s president. He’s trying to destroy science. He’s taken away my main job prospects in the federal service and public health. So anyways it’s time to do a,b, and c, no matter what they say.

1. SHUT UP

   this one is pretty simple. If you tell me to shut up, I can’t talk about organizing or any issues or anything!

2. Where is the money going to come from?

   https://tonemadison.com/articles/cuts-to-wisconsins-campuses-checks-for-consultants/

3. When I was in graduate school, I made less than you and had a baby in a 1BR apartment

   omg that is awful. sounds like a good wage would have helped you back then!

4. You want a living wage? I want a ferrari!

   vroom vroom

5. You have to win UNPAID leave before you win PAID leave

   hahaah we won paid thooo suck it

6. We’ve been working on [issue] for a loooong time / No, the union didn’t win paid leave, faculty senate has been working on that for a looong time

   do you want your advocacy group of choice to win you paid family leave in 1 year (union) or 25 years (faculty senate)?

7. Hey, we got high-up people working on that. Why don’t you just take a step back and chill and focus your work

8. This is first and foremost a scientific training program.

   (not some sort of training ground for radical Marxists. :p)

9. If we provide family leave, then everyone in Wisconsin will start taking family leave because someone is always related to someone else working at UW.

   don’t quote me but heard this was Mnookin’s rationale against leave LOL

10. My wife had $300,000 in medical school debt.

    Ok… thanks for that mark. now moving on to how the program can afford $1200 /yr to pay international fees.

11. “Back in my day …”

    home ownership was a viable option !

12. I’m not going to pay your car payment! only enough to live

    ok then i’m not gonna be able to get to campus :o

13. I ALSO talk to a lot of people. And what I heard was much different than what you heard

    damnit. actually u really got me there

14. These things take time.

15. These things are verrrry complicated

16. International students are really getting a deal having to pay extra $200 / yr to work

17. I don’t know what you want

18. Yeah, these sorts of things [horribly unfair harassment/mistreatment] will happen.

19. No thanks.

    Hey, I appreciate the honest response after asking if you’d sign my petition.

20. I wouldn’t want to organize because we’d be biasing younger graduate student’s thoughts

    This one really floored me. It was so fascinating. The idea that each person has a unique perspective which is separate from everyone, and by joining together we’d harm our individuality. It’s very American. Of course, it’s also a very weak negotiating position.

21. You’re bullying me!!! - tenured faculty member

22. We need to make the negative less negative and the positive more positive.

23. Hey, we’ve already done so much for you: paid leave, stipend raises, more transparency [all union wins]. Why don’t we just stop here.

24. Well, if you’d only not use *that* word … *shudders*

25. We shouldn’t organize because faculty will get sad

26. “You think we’re sitting on this giant pile of money… but that is NOT the case!”

    https://news.wisc.edu/rise-ai-gets-15-million-boost-from-the-wisconsin-alumni-research-foundation/

    https://tonemadison.com/articles/cuts-to-wisconsins-campuses-checks-for-consultants/

    https://pbswisconsin.org/news-item/wisconsin-legislative-leaders-consider-policy-priorities-and-state-politics-in-2025/

27. We should ask for very small things, like publishing data or doing another survey. That will help people more.

28. No, we need to collect more data.

29. The living wage is NOT correct. I will not tell you what is the correct one, but yours is incorrect.

30. Students are causing climate issues by the way they are advocating for stipend increases

31. Go through shared governance

32. Have you talked with shared governance?

33. if you make more, we’ll replace you with staff/postdocs.

34. The things you’re asking for will hurt science. Labs will be run out of business.

35. Graduate students are a burden on the lab budget (even though they do all of the lab work)

36. Your union isn’t real.

    I guess if someone in power believes something, it’s true.

37. Can you even have unions in wisconsin?

38. Grad students aren’t workers. They don’t do work.

39. When I was in graduate school, I was so happy to do more and more work, even when I wasn’t getting paid.

40. You need to understand how these systems work.

41. This is not an appropriate venue.

42. How exactly is this a DEI issue.

43. I am not anti union. I love unions. But I just don’t think we should listen to a group of graduate students.

44. We see you’ve put in an open records request. Why

45. Why didn’t you just talk directly to my face. I know I said “no” a million times when you brought this up before, but why did u organize.

46. Why can’t you bring us issues by yourself, individually, separately so we can tell you each “no” one at a time?

47. How dare you.

onward!