Ewa Nizalowska

she / her

Running for: President

I am an international graduate worker from Poland and a rising fifth-year Ph.D. Candidate in Government. I am running for President of CGSU-UE on the Fight Together 4 CGSU slate. Amid growing attacks on international and LGBTQ+ workers, cuts to DEI programs and funding for vital scientific research, and silencing of protests against the genocide in Palestine, we need a fighting union that can stand up to the federal administration and hold Cornell accountable to protecting its graduate workers. 

Our slate, Fight Together 4 CGSU, has developed a platform dedicated to addressing these issues. Our platform is the result of experienced organizers across campus reflecting on conversations with grads and envisioning a collective future for our union. Our priorities will be:

  1. Standing up for international workers: Real-time support for international grads facing visa revocations and immigration issues; dedicated campaigns for promoting international worker involvement; and campus-wide education on rights when interacting with ICE and border control.

  2. Robust contract enforcement: Building a robust steward network across campus to protect our coworkers; filing grievances for contract violations, particularly around discipline and discharge and academic due process, where we know Cornell has already been violating our contract; and educating all members on the protections and benefits of our industry-setting contract so that everyone can recognize and address potential contract violations.

  3. Rank-and-file democracy for collective power: Fostering department-level organizing to monitor potential local issues and facilitate easy access to the union; build a strong union culture through mass participation in monthly General Membership Meetings (GMMs) where members can share their input and take part in unit-wide votes; working with student advocacy groups, including OISE organizations; and creating multiple points of entry into union involvement to cultivate a diverse and inclusive union.

  4. Safeguarding academic freedom: Protecting our right to assemble and protest without retaliation, including against the ongoing genocide in Palestine; ensuring our teaching and research are free from censorship and surveillance; and supporting grads through interactions with the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards (OSCCS) and Cornell Police.

  5. Waging national-level fights: Continuing to fight for the inclusion of fellows in our bargaining unit, alongside other graduate unions across the country; strengthening relationships with our fellow UE higher education unions and organized labor in Ithaca and beyond; protecting all workers at Cornell and other higher education institutions from austerity measures and budget cuts. 

I am excited to work with other elected officers and stewards and the broader membership bring this vision to life, after so many years of work to form our union and fight for our first contract. I represented Region 3 on our Bargaining Committee, where I spearheaded our fight for industry-leading protections and benefits for non-citizen workers, including improved communication with the International Student Office; a new pathway to ITAP exemption; and guarantees that Cornell does not release graduate workers’ information to government agencies unless required by law. 

Along with Jenna Marvin, I established a robust organizer network in Region 3 and facilitated weekly region-wide meetings to build a strong culture of sustainable worker-to-worker organizing. This culture shift cultivated mass participation, and empowered grads to take ownership over organizing in their departments to mobilize their coworkers. This model of organizing gave us the power to reach a supermajority of strike pledges in our region. 

I also co-lead the Communications Committee, which focuses on mass communications for broad membership engagement. During the many major fights to protect suspended graduate workers, I led the national and local press strategy to raise awareness and exert pressure on Cornell. As part of my work spearheading our media strategy, I represented our union through direct conversations with local and national reporters, which led to extensive coverage of our contract fight in outlets like NPR and The Nation.

Since our contract was ratified, I have been working to build the foundation of our union through our constitution and steward network. I served on the Constitutional Committee to ensure that our union is firmly rooted in the principles of member-run unionism and rank-and-file democracy. I am also an interim steward, and have been coordinating many of the interim steward training and education sessions.

In the past two years, I have been one of the leaders of the UE Higher Education Conference Board, a body composed of nearly all of UE’s Higher Education locals. As part of my work on the Conference Board, I spearheaded the campaign for a Mutual Academic Defense Compact, which demands that our universities pool legal and financial resources to collectively weather federal attacks on international grads and funding cuts. This campaign involved coordinated local actions at twelve universities, and was covered by major news outlets, including MSNBC. Over the years, I have represented our Local at UE sub-regional and regional meetings and trainings, including the MIT-GSU Union Leadership Training; the International Worker Power panel; and a workshop on strike power at UE Local 506 in Erie, Pennsylvania. 

We have a strong vision for the future of our workplace. Central to all of our priorities is shifting the culture away from profit over people and towards valuing workers. As your president, I would be proud to be on the front lines of this fight by developing our union’s power and enforcing our major contract wins. Our slate, Fight Together 4 CGSU, shares this vision for our union and is dedicated to carrying it out.