The polls are now closed in our historic union election. First and foremost, we want to thank everyone who participated in the campaign over the last two and a half years, as well as all of our allies on campus and in the larger community who supported us in the exercise of our democratic rights over these last two days. It has been a truly remarkable and rewarding experience for all of us so far.
We know that a number of you had to cast “challenged” ballots and found that frustrating. In most cases, this was because the voter list the University provided to the NLRB did not include your names even though you believe your work experience should make you eligible. A few others experienced different problems at the polls, which we attempted to address with the NLRB. Still a few others reported that the University included an incorrect name on the list, such as transgender student workers who found their previous name on the list instead of their current name. We regret any inconveniences you may have encountered during the voting process and we did our best to work with the NLRB to resolve any problems as they arose.
The NLRB will begin the process of counting the ballots to determine the results of the election tomorrow morning at 10am at their offices at 26 Federal Plaza. As we have explained before, if the number of challenged ballots is large enough to determine the outcome of the election, the union and the university will have the opportunity to present arguments about whether or not these individuals should have been entitled to vote based on the NLRB’s definition of eligibility. Any challenged ballots determined to be eligible would be added to the final count. This process may or may not be complete tomorrow. We will keep you posted either way.
If necessary, we may be in touch with some of you who had to cast challenged ballots in order to help resolve them.