The union card says I’m authorizing the union to represent me and on my behalf negotiate now. What does that mean? I thought you said the union is something that will exist in the future?

Right now, we are the union, but we are not officially recognized as the bargaining representative of graduate workers. After winning our union election, grad students like us will elect coworkers who will make up the bargaining committee, who will negotiate with the university to improve our working, learning, and research conditions. The union is made up of graduate students–we will negotiate on our behalf.