Unionized graduate workers at the University of Rochester are gearing up to strike.

Members of the Graduate Labor Union held an informational picket on Tuesday. They gathered at the Elmwood Avenue entrance to the U of R to promote the work stoppage set to begin next Monday, April 21.

This comes after the union claims the university's administrators refused to allow for a fair union election process. Last month, the Graduate Labor Union Organizing Committee announced that 90% of its members voted "yes" to authorize a strike. 

"We were promised a path to a union election," graduate student George Elkind said. "We negotiated on a private election agreement for some 10 months and despite some public lines from the university, they're functionally blocking our path to a union election. They've said in the past they believe in our right for a union vote and that's what we're fighting for here."

The university, which released a statement on Tuesday, has long maintained that the union is trying to pressure it into a private election agreement, which it says it has never engaged in:

"Typically, seeking to unionize is done by filing a petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), a federal agency that would conduct a secret ballot election to determine if a majority of graduate students wish to be represented by a union. This is the same process that each of the several groups of unionized employees on our campus used to be recognized. Here, the graduate students are demanding that the University bypass the NLRB and instead enter into a private election agreement seeking the same recognition. The University is refusing to enter into a private election agreement but is not preventing or interfering with the graduate students from pursuing recognition through a NLRB election. The NLRB has certified unions at several of our peer institutions, including Fordham University, Boston University, Dartmouth College, and Northwestern University."