As Donald Trump returns to the White House this week, the people that Capital & Main has covered for the last 18 months in its national series on worker organizing could face a difficult transition. This is the second in a four-part series looking at how labor organizing could be affected by the second Trump administration.
Industry
Higher education
Number of Workers
2,000 at California Institute of Technology.
1,000 at Occidental College.
What They’re Fighting For
At Caltech, graduate students and postdocs are seeking workplace health and safety improvements, protections against discrimination, time off for international students to renew their visas and increases to pay and child care stipends.
Occidental undergrads are pushing to increase wages, which are currently pegged to Los Angeles’ minimum wage of $17.28, and to remove a $5,000 limit on student workers’ earnings each year.
Backstory
In February 2024, workers at Pasadena’s Caltech voted to join the United Auto Workers 1039 to 296. In April, undergrads at Occidental College in Los Angeles also went union, joining the Service Employees International Union Local 721. (Disclosure: The SEIU is a financial supporter of Capital & Main.)
Current Status
Last month, 86% of Caltech student workers voted to authorize a strike. Ten months after winning a union election, workers and the administration are still negotiating wages and benefits, as well as protections for international students. The two sides have reached tentative agreements around protections against discrimination and harassment, grievance and arbitration processes, and health and safety standards. Workers will hold a “last chance picket” on Jan. 28, which could be followed by a strike. Meanwhile, students at Occidental held an introductory bargaining session in November, with plans to continue meeting in early 2025.
Coming Soon
Both unions are eyeing the incoming administration warily. Under President Barack Obama, the National Labor Relations Board, the government agency overseeing union elections, concluded that student workers at private universities could unionize. During the first Trump administration, however, the National Labor Relations Board moved to strip the labor rights of these student workers. Academic worker unions at private schools like Caltech and Occidental were possible because after President Biden installed a new board chair, the agency withdrew the Trump-era rule in March 2021.
Workers are aware that a second Trump administration could push the pendulum back, and potentially cancel their rights to organize, said Jasmine Emtage, a biology graduate student and union activist at Caltech. “We’re moving into a time of uncertainty for the future of the NLRB,” she said. “That’s one reason we’re hoping to get a good contract signed as soon as possible.”
Why This Campaign Matters
Workers at Occidental and Caltech are among the more than 50,000 student workers who joined 54 unions under the Biden administration’s NLRB. Campus organizing has been a bright spot for unions, with density among graduate student workers growing from about 20% in 2020 to 38% today, compared to the overall national workforce average of 10%. What’s more, student worker unions are often overwhelmingly popular, reflecting the more than three-quarters of younger Americans’ who view unions favorably. A November 2024 union election at George Washington University, for example, won recognition with a vote of 347-2.
Student workers are continuing to organize, with active campaigns at Macalester College and the University of Rochester, both private institutions. Observers note that an NLRB ruling cancelling academic workers’ right to organize at private institutions could prevent new unions from forming and likely make it harder to preserve the ones that have already formed. “The drive for unionization has been strong for decades, but the law had been an obstacle,” said William Herbert, executive director of the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions at Hunter College. “The question now is whether a new Trump board is going to try again.”
