Who are we?

Why a Union?

  • A union gives us the power and structure to push for changes that are important to graduate workers at UChicago. It enables us to bargain with the university and protect the rights of graduate students in a way that would be impossible if we weren’t working collectively.

    A union provides graduate workers with a democratic say in their working and learning conditions and holds the university accountable, enshrining our compensation and work expectations in a legally enforceable contract and allowing workers with recourse through both legal enforcement and collective action when those agreements are not adhered to.

    A union allows graduate workers to use our collective strength to negotiate directly with the university on issues of compensation, housing affordability, insurance and benefits, workplace training and safety, and protections against exploitation and harassment.

  • Graduate Students United (GSU) is an independent labor organization of graduate student workers at the University of Chicago. We formed in the spring of 2007 to create a union to advocate for higher wages, better health care, and better work conditions for graduate students. A graduate student union is a democratic organization of graduate student-workers that represents the interests of graduate students as university employees, and which collectively negotiates over employment conditions like pay, health insurance, and protections against harassment.

    GSU differs from organizations for graduate students administered by the university such as the Graduate Council and Student Government, most of which serve in an advisory capacity to administrators. While these groups can serve an important function in advocating for student needs on campus, GSU was founded to meet the need for an independent voice for graduate students. Many members of GSU are active in these advisory groups, yet experience has shown us the need for an autonomous, self-governing body to represent our interests as university employees, and to advocate for higher wages and access to the resources we need to thrive as scholars.

    Graduate employees at many public universities have long enjoyed the benefits of strong unions (for example, at the University of Illinois, Chicago, University of Michigan, and Wisconsin-Madison). We stand alongside our unionized peers in private universities at NYU, Columbia,  Harvard, the New School, Brown, and Georgetown, all of whom have bargained contracts with their administrations, along with the many others who are building campaigns right now.

  • Since GSU’s existence, the graduate workers have doubled the minimum stipend, substantial increases in hourly rates, and started receiving benefits such as dental, vision, transport, retirement, and visa fees. The student service fee has also been waived for all PhD students. 

    Several improvements in policies regarding time-off, workplace safety, and protections against discrimination and harassment have also been secured. 

    A full list of current benefits is available on the contract highlights page <link page>. 

WHAT IS United Electrical (UE)?

  • GSU affiliated with the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) on August 25, 2022 at a General Members meeting. When a group of workers wants to form a union, they nearly always affiliate with an existing union for financial, legal, and organizational assistance. In our case, we decided to affiliate with UE based on a democratic vote, and have received assistance from them to build the infrastructure we needed to speak with every grad worker. Our union is an autonomous local chapter of UE. They provide us with support and resources, but we ultimately hold the power to make decisions about what our union does.

    Our union was started by, is made up of, and is run by rank-and-file grad workers. That said, we formed a partnership with our national affiliate because we believe they offer us substantial support and solidarity. The broader labor movement connects us to grad workers at other campuses, as well as dining hall workers, custodians, researchers —not to mention teachers, autoworkers, and electricians!

    We are in company of other graduate schools who are with UE including MIT, Indiana University, Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, Stanford, University of New Mexico, New Mexico State, University of Minnesota and most recently Cornell.

  • After thorough research, grad workers building our unionization campaign democratically voted to affiliate with UE. There were many reasons why we chose to affiliate with UE, but three were most important:

    UE is committed to rank-and-file organizing. A rank-and-file union is run by its members, and as a local chapter of UE, our local union will have complete autonomy to run our union. In fact, this rank-and-file structure is why we are so confident in our independence within this partnership!

    UE emphasizes issue-oriented unionization campaigns. Our issue-oriented campaign has allowed us to fight for near-term improvements in the lives of grad workers as we build our union. These campaigns taught us about the limits of grad worker activism, but even more importantly, our issue campaigns allowed us to learn about the issues affecting grad workers, better preparing us to build a union that represents us all.

    UE is willing to fight hard battles. We know that the Administration has the resources to fight grad worker unionization. UE has experience supporting pre-majority graduate student unions in states that are particularly hostile to labor. UE is affiliated with graduate student unions at the University of Iowa, the College of William and Mary, Indiana University, and the University of New Mexico. In addition, UE’s organizing model is focused on issues rather than elections, allowing us to build lasting strength as we work to speak to every grad worker about their life in graduate school.