Candidate Statements
As you know, we are in the middle of electing the first Executive Board of our Union! Ballots have been mailed out to all Members and must be returned (postmarked) by Thursday, October 29th, 2020.
So that Members can make informed decisions, each candidate has provided a statement. In addition, we are holding a General Members’ Meeting (GMM) on Wednesday, October 14, 2020 from 6-7:30pm, which will feature a brief explanation of election procedures, and short speeches from candidates. Members will have several opportunities to ask questions of the Elections Committee and of the candidates. Note that two positions are contested: President and Coordinator for Social Justice and Accountability. To receive the meeting Zoom link, please RSVP to the GMM.
Email gradlabororg@gmail.com to update your mailing address if you have not received a ballot.
Candidate Statements
PResident
Candidates:
Lubabah Chowdhury
Rithika Ramamurthy
Lubabah Chowdhury
Listening and kindness: the two most important skills I have learned in my four years organizing for GLO and in my decade of experience as a student activist and organizer. After tens, if not hundreds, of organizing conversations with graduate student workers at Brown, I have learned that building a feminist, anti-racist labor organization requires us to listen to each other and to see ourselves in each other. As President of GLO, I pledge to listen more than I speak, patiently work through conflict and tension, and to center GLO’s feminist and anti-racist values in each action I take to organize for worker power here at Brown. My platform, which you can read here, is the result of what I have learned from numerous organizing conversations with graduate student workers across Brown campus and through my work with GLO’s Social Justice Working Group. I will fight alongside you for a strong second contract. I will increase transparency and communication between the Executive Board and GLO members with monthly newsletters and my annual report. And most importantly, I will advocate for feminist and anti-racist initiatives both here at Brown and in the larger umbrella organizations GLO is a part of. I promise to fight alongside you for a better, freer future for all.
Rithika Ramamurthy
As co-chair of the GLO bargaining committee, I fought hard over the course of 15 months to improve the material conditions of grad workers by winning us a contract that provides us the work protections and benefits that we deserve. As president, I will continue to organize and lead a powerful union that is a force for political good and labor rights at the university, be a strong voice in the labor movement both in Rhode Island and nationwide, and oppose Brown’s austerity program in higher education and the Providence community. I'm running with Action at Work because I believe that collective action is the best approach to holding the university accountable and advocating for shared democratic governance within higher education.
Vice President
Kaitlyn Hajdarovic
As co-chair of the bargaining committee, I helped us win a strong contract that increased our protections in the workplace. As VP, I will oversee the grievance committee to make sure every grad worker has protections from discrimination and harassment, make sure the details of the contract are enforced, and continue to organize towards workplace rights for all at the university. I am running with Action at Work because I believe we can only succeed in our vision of a more just workplace when we all work together.
Secretary
Carin Papendorp
Since I first came to Brown as an undergrad in 2013, I’ve been dedicated to holding the University accountable to its students and workers. I've written op-eds calling for an end to unpaid undergraduate research, higher pay for TAs, and greater transparency surrounding big donors. I will continue this track record of accountability in the role of Secretary. Thorough records of all general member meetings, negotiations with the University, and grievances will help us enforce our new contract. I've been a GLO member since Fall 2019 when I started in the Neuroscience Graduate Program. I helped manage GLO social media accounts during our fight for a contract. Going forward, I want to see a strong, equitable, and transparent union that serves to further the interests of all grads. During the COVID19 pandemic, grads were some of the last to leave campus and the first to return, highlighting the fact that Brown works because we do. I'm running with Action at Work slate because a large, engaged union will best allow us to improve the lives of all grads and advocate for our anti-racist, feminist, anti-xenophobic mission.
Treasurer
Keenan Wilder
I have been a GLO member and active organizer since I came to Brown in 2017. I helped organize with other grads during our union election and contract campaign. Since then, I also took the lead running the online votes held to ratify our new contract and constitution. I am proud to be running with an inspiring group of organizers as part of Action at Work because I believe that organizing is the only way to build a strong social justice union. I look forward to expanding our union’s new formal organization as a platform for building our power on campus and beyond.
Political Director
Dennis Hogan
I'm running with the Action at Work slate because I believe in our collective vision of growing our membership, securing more protections for grad workers, and getting members involved to build our union power and fight for a better world. Since joining GLO in 2014, I have been an organizing committee member, helped negotiate our union recognition agreement, and organized during our election and contract campaigns. I currently serve as the electoral coordinator for Reclaim RI; this summer I built a field operation that helped four progressive candidates win General Assembly primary elections. I am excited to help shape our political agenda and use our connections and resources to support activist and political work at Brown, in Providence, in Rhode Island, and within the labor movement.
Coordinator for Social Justice and Accountability
Candidates:
Melody Chapin
Jared Loggins
MELODY CHAPIN
My goal as Coordinator for Social Justice and Accountability is to establish a strong pillar of intersectional solidarity within our overall GLO culture. I commit to a grassroots effort that centers grads with the least access to institutional power-- those at greatest risk of mistreatment by our employers and colleagues alike. Only such an anti-racist grassroots approach can build the type of collective, intersectional solidarity that will make our union a formidable and united presence on campus.
As Social Justice and Accountability Coordinator, I commit to:
- Building a Union Culture of Transformative Justice
- Establishing BIPOC-centered and anti-ableist procedures that will benefit all grads
- Protecting international grads
- An anti-racist, abolitionist future at Brown
For more information, see my full platform here.
JARED LOGGINS
I am running with Action At Work because I believe unified labor power is the most important form of solidarity we have to push against austerity, carceral policies, and the indigities graduate workers face on a daily basis. As Social Justice + Accountability Coordinator, I want to guide actions and organizing around racial justice that will engage the union as a whole. I've had the privilege of leading local political education efforts with Reclaim Rhode Island on abolition, defunding the police, and prison divestment. One thing I want to build is a formal network for the union that strengthens racial and class-based analysis, and allows us to connect these social issues to the university context.
Coordinator for Communications
TALIE MASSACHI
Our union has done a lot of good securing a contract, but now I want to help GLO communicate with its members in a clear and transparent way, and help members easily communicate their needs to union leadership. It’s not grads’ job to seek information; we need to build a union that reaches everybody. Here’s how we do it:
Actively seek input from grads of all demographics on what resources will boost engagement in our union
Standardize our branding so we can present as a strong and united group
Build a Communications Committee with the capacity to keep all online resources up-to-date
Provide a secure chat and secure phone number for in-the-moment issues; right now online communications are mostly one-way. We need to build methods of listening.
I’m running with Action at Work because this first executive board will set a precedent for the future of our union, and we need a solid structure of decision-making, with a strong commitment to anti-racism and transparency. This is necessary to hold the University accountable, not just for ourselves but for future generations of grads.
Coordinator for Organizing
AUDREY MASSMAN
Conversations are the building blocks of labor power. In conversations, we build trust, and we hold each other accountable to take action for justice at work. I have had hundreds of one-on-one conversations with grad workers at Brown to help coordinate our fight for a fair contract. As labs reopened, I co-founded our union’s COVID-19 Self-Defense Group through which we organized and won better PPE, regular testing for on-campus workers, and TA choice to teach online. Now I'm running with the Action at Work slate because, to realize our union's potential, we need to recruit and support union leaders in every single department and work location.
actionatwork.wordpress.com
Lead Organizer for Workers in Master’s Programs
Claire Crews
I am dedicated to building connections among masters students and making the union an approachable, tangible resource for grad students across departments no matter the duration or size of their programs. I am running with Action at Work because I believe that we will be able to advocate most effectively for students in all departments if we have a presence in all departments. As a fiction writer, I believe that the first step towards a more equitable future is imagination and worldbuilding.
Lead Organizer for International Graduate Workers
Ana San Martín
During my first year here at Brown, I collaborated with people in the union in the response group to the crisis with ICE and the vulnerable situation of international grad student workers (incoming, returning and remaining). As an international myself, I´m aware of the many intersectionalities involved in the process of claiming and gaining work rights and fighting discrimination and abusive practices in the workplace. Ensuring that an integrative (feminist, anti-racist and anti-xenophobic as well as anti-ableist), globally political vision from non-US-national workers is taken into account in all these processes is a priority for me. Action at Work will realize this vision of defending international grads' rights in the workplace by broadening and diversifying our union leadership, and taking responsibility for all grads' needs!
Lead Organizer for Humanities
Sherena Razek
I am dedicated to building union membership and involvement across the humanities departments and advocating for our rights as grad workers. Winning a fair contract is a testament to the strength of our labour power, but this is only the beginning! I believe in a union committed to transformative approaches to social, racial, gender, economic and environmental justice both on and beyond our campus, from Palestine to Turtle Island. I am running with Action at Work alongside experienced grad and community organizers to ensure that we are an organization grounded in collective action and solidarity.
Lead Organizer for Life Science
Corinne Hutfilz
I'm running with Action at Work because each of us understands what it takes to build an organization that’s strong enough to put graduates at the forefront of University policy. My work for the union revolves around achieving COVID protections for grads. This is policy that determines our health, our lives, and the risks imposed on our loved ones, so I believe grads have every right to shape it to our needs. Instead, decisions are still largely made without us. My position as GLO representative to the Research Continuity Committee has been a big step in granting grad workers a say over their pandemic working conditions, but it’s not nearly enough. It’s my goal as part of Action at Work to raise grad worker voices to a level that administration can no longer ignore.
Lead Organizer for Physical Sciences
Max Weinreich
I’ve been involved in the union for a long time, first as the Math department organizer, then in the Bargaining Committee, and most recently on the Constitution working group. Through it all, I’ve been one of the few organizers from Physical Sciences, making sure that the issues particular to our division get attention from administrators and other union organizers alike. I’m running with the Action at Work slate because I know firsthand from my work on the Bargaining Committee that this leadership team will fight the Brown administration on tough issues, like COVID preparedness and financial security, and win.
Lead Organizer for Social Sciences
Siraj Sindhu
I'm running with Action at Work because I am eager to build an institution that is highly responsive to the issues grads are facing. My conversations with colleagues since coming to Brown have given me a deep appreciation for the challenges that are faced by grads in social sciences -- including, for example, problems with teaching loads, insufficient office space, funding during the summer and support for fieldwork, dissertation data collection and processing, job market preparation for non-academic work, and more. I have experience standing up for grads from serving on the union's bargaining committee last year, and I am eager to continue supporting my colleagues, growing our union, and building a more just university.