A "strong majority" of grad student workers at the University of Chicago want a union. They filed Monday for an NLRB union representation election.

Graduate Students United filed union authorization cards signed by a "strong majority" of grad student workers in six departments at the University of Chicago. Issues driving the effort to unionize include health care, workload and compensation.

GSU organizer Claudio Sansone says an electronic petition was filed and signed union authorization cards were hand delivered Monday to the Chicago NLRB office.

[Claudio Sansone]: "Graduate employees are really performing some of the most essential work on the university campus on the teaching side and also on the research side. So all undergraduates are taught by graduate students at some point in their career here.

All research parts of the university require graduate labor, whether that be a lab, a writing seminar or whatnot. And so we really think that grad employees deserve a seat at the negotiation table where the decisions are made that affect our lives and those of our students."

Graduate Students United are working with the American Federation of Teachers, the Illinois Federation of Teachers and the American Association of University Professors.

The union election is expected to be held in late June. More than 2,000 University of Chicago grad student workers are eligible to vote.