On March 14, 2018, AFT, SEIU, UAW and UNITE HERE sent a joint letter to the Presidents of Yale University, Columbia University, Boston College, University of Chicago, and Loyola University Chicago demanding each institution to commence collective bargaining with unions representing graduate student employees (GSE) at their institution. On each campus, vote tallies in representation elections conducted by the National Labor Relations Board demonstrated that a majority of the graduate students supported union representation.
The joint letter stated, in part:
"Despite clear votes in favor of unionization at your university, you have attempted to silence graduate workers by using the Trump National Labor Relations Board to rig the system against them. Your refusal to bargain with a democratically chosen union both ignores the value of RAs and TAs as workers and contradicts the fundamental values for which your university stands."
Following the elections, the NLRB certified the unions on each campus. More recently, a number of representation petitions were withdrawn with the exception of Columbia University and Loyola University of Chicago.