A graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has filed federal charges against the MIT Graduate Student Union (GSU-UE), an affiliate of the United Electrical Workers union, and the university administration. The student, Katerina Boukin, alleges that they are illegally using student money for union political activities.
This follows previous charges by five Jewish students at MIT who accused the same union of religious discrimination. Boukin’s charges, filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) with assistance from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, claim that union officials are unlawfully taking money from her research compensation to support political activities she opposes.
“GSU union officials are going above and beyond what is legal and are forcing me to pay for their political activities, including their opposition to Israel and promotion of Leninist-Marxist global revolution, that I find deeply offensive,” commented Boukin. “The GSU’s political agenda has nothing to do with my research as a graduate student at MIT, or the relationships I have with my professors and the university administration, yet outrageously they demand I fund their radical ideology.”