740 Research Assistants Join CWA
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Research assistants at the State University of New York (SUNY) Research Foundation at Stony Brook overcame management’s strong anti-union effort, voting to join the Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 1104 earlier this month.
The 740 research assistants (RAs), all doctoral students, are seeking better pay and benefits and fairer treatment from a university administration they say has continually claimed it could not afford to pay them a more livable wage. The workers are particularly aggrieved over a $500 transportation and technology fee that the institution charges them each semester—a fee that has been waived for graduate and teaching assistants at Stony Brook, who are represented by Local 1104.
