The Graduate Students’ Union (GSU) tonight voted to lobby on behalf of postgraduate students to “ensure that those employed directly or indirectly with the College are at least furnished with a living wage”.
The GSU is now also mandated to demand postgraduate employment within College “be placed on a more formal contractual basis”.
Speaking in support of the motion, GSU President Gisèle Scanlon said that many of the union’s members were workers themselves, and many had come to her asking for help.
She argued that “a living wage should be a starting point,” and should be “a standard set across campus”.
“We want our TAs and demonstrators to be respected,” she added.
The motion stated that contractually based employment situations had been adopted in other Irish institutions and “as such, there exists a clear precedent for the adoption of said contractual relationships”.
The vote took place at the union’s EGM this evening, which was riddled with controversy.
The voting methods came under fire throughout as participants did not have to verify that they were members of the union before voting.
Some members expressed outrage over the fact that the chat function on the Zoom call had been disabled. Members held up pieces of paper with messages, expressing their frustrations.
One read: “People can vote many times. I could not vote once. Where is democracy??”
One of the most contentious motions of the evening – to divest from Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union – was ultimately shot down, after its first vote was passed.
When voting ended for the original motion to divest, it appeared that it had lost by two votes, but GSU vice president Abhisweta Bhattacharjee, who was chairing the meeting, said that it was a tie and as chair had the casting vote.
She later said that it had come to her attention that the vote was “not a clear one” and that members would vote again. By then, there were around 255 people on the Zoom call, down from around over 500 at the start of the meeting.
The union also overhauled much of its constitution, and introduced a new sabbatical officer position to represent PhD researchers.
