By Patrick Baron
NORMAL – Democratic candidate for governor Daniel Biss was at the Normal Public Library Friday to support efforts of Illinois State University’s graduate students to form a union.
Speaking to a full room of graduate students, undergraduates and research assistants, Biss also said he is “all in to win” the fight against the current tax reform proposal in Washington, which would cause tuition wavers for those students to be considered taxable income. He said the proposal only helps those at the top.
“It is unthinkable. If you write out who benefits and who gets harmed by this tax bill in Washington, it is unbelievable,” Biss explained.
“It’s cartoonish, he added.”
Biss said says the current law that prevents the students from unionizing isn’t fair since they doing professional work in their respective fields.
“This shouldn’t be complicated – this isn’t a hard question, this is a technicality, and the technicality is being used to push people down because they’re vulnerable.”
Biss said he would support a state budget that provides stipends for graduate assistants. ISU graduate student Erik Zdansky said being able to unionize could solve many issues the students face.
“In my opinion, unionizing is a solution to poor stipends, poor working conditions, etcetera,” said Zdansky.
Zdansky also said since students from different departments receive different stipends and payments, unionizing would make living and working conditions more fair across the board.
Patrick Baron can be reached at [email protected].
