Graduate workers and associated activists began a Twitter campaign Thursday to advocate for unionization.
The Coalition of Graduate Workers has said that it wants to hold a vote on unionizing during the spring semester. The UM System said Feb. 10 that it was looking into the legality of a union.
“We believe that the university needs clarity on the graduate students’ legal right to organize, as there is no legal precedent or clarity in current Missouri law to make that determination,” interim UM System President Mike Middleton [said in a news release.](https://www.umsystem.edu/ums/news/news_releases/021016_news)
The coalition has begun court proceedings to declare graduate students’ employee status, [according to previous Maneater reporting](https://www.themaneater.com/stories/2016/2/24/graduate-students-hold-grade-make-their-work-publi/).
Since the [graduate students lost their health care](https://www.themaneater.com/stories/2015/8/26/start-movement-graduate-students-walk-out/) at the beginning of the semester, the Coalition of Graduate Workers and the Graduate Professional Council have been advocating for a better handling of issues related to graduate students, such as healthcare, housing and childcare. Here’s a collection of the responses on Twitter.