Comments on: Graduate students decry GESO tactics

By: Amanda

Amanda — Sun, 31 Jan 2016 16:46:00 +0000

Perhaps this is not the world’s greatest article, but this is a story that needs to be told. GESO harassed me nonstop during my time at Yale. In principle I might support the existence of a graduate union, but not from these people, never from these people.

By: Hieronymus Machine

Hieronymus Machine — Fri, 06 Nov 2015 18:51:00 +0000

In reply to nk.

Thu… thu… thu… thugs? As note elsewhere though: tough to annoy ppl into complicity; GESO types typically lack the physical heft of their UNITE counterparts (and often the intellectual heft of, say, their sciences or pro-school complements as well, but that is beside the point).

By: ldffly

ldffly — Fri, 06 Nov 2015 12:29:00 +0000

In reply to nk. A restraining order? I'm surprised there hasn't been some pushing and shoving or worse.

By: nk

nk — Fri, 06 Nov 2015 00:13:00 +0000

I don’t know any of the people quoted in this story, but their claims sound all too familiar. After some grad students in my department left GESO because they were uninterested in repeatedly pressuring their colleagues to join, they were followed and harassed by GESO recruiters for weeks. GESO members would frequently wait in the lobby of our building after classes, or in the coffeeshop, or initiate a seemingly unending conversation if one of them spotted you in the library. These GESO recruiters were persistent and aggressive enough that one student in my department was on the verge of filing for a restraining order. GESO’s tactics are predatory. They believe that harassment is entirely justified to achieve their ends.

I know I’m on their list of supposed GESO members, but there’s no way in hell I’ll be voting for them if there was unionization vote. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love for there to be a graduate student union. I just don’t think it should be GESO.

By: guest1123912310293

guest1123912310293 — Thu, 05 Nov 2015 22:37:00 +0000

In reply to alex. ... but many prof school students *are* researchers and teachers. Some even TA for undergrad classes. Prof school students are doing much of the same work as graduate students, which makes their exclusion from GESO worth emphasizing.

By: ldffly

ldffly — Thu, 05 Nov 2015 22:35:00 +0000

Some of these people sound like petty Leninists. They missed the big one, so the next best thing is Yale. Watch out. If they ever get really serious, they’ll go get some muscle and take care of the non GESO malcontents.

By: newhavencitizen

newhavencitizen — Thu, 05 Nov 2015 22:22:00 +0000

In reply to David. Seriously. A newspaper is supposed to have some standards about repeating allegations like "follows people into bathrooms" from an anonymous source. Alas, grad students fighting to be able to support themselves have to work under the uncomprehending and untrained commentary of teenagers.

By: Hieronymus Machine

Hieronymus Machine — Thu, 05 Nov 2015 21:33:00 +0000

In reply to alex.

“GESO won’t vote until Yale says it will accept the result of that vote.”

‘ceptin’ that they did stage a vote–and lost…

By: newhavencitizen

newhavencitizen — Thu, 05 Nov 2015 21:05:00 +0000

Except that the Bush administration changed the rules to make graduate students ineligible, so everything you say here is incorrect.

By: alex

alex — Thu, 05 Nov 2015 20:41:00 +0000

NYU was only able to do that because NYU admin agreed to respect a vote. GESO won’t vote until Yale says it will accept the result of that vote.