Why We Voted Yes!

Graduate workers are often forced to find two or three roommates to be able to afford living in the Boston area, and often need to move every year to find a more affordable home because of rent increases. Some of our advisors often work hard to try to help, but ultimately the decision of our pay is made above them.

With a union, we will elect graduate workers to sit across the table with the Northeastern administrators who do make these decisions and negotiate a standard of living that allows us to focus on providing the highest quality teaching and research. 

At other universities, graduate workers have been able to negotiate for improvements to raise the standards:

At Harvard, where they paid some graduate workers minimum wage ($12.15 at the time), unionized graduate workers have been able to win increases to $21 per hour.

At WPI, grads won their union election in November of 2022, and just voted to accept their first union contract with 15% raises! 

The healthcare plan here at Northeastern is not good enough. We experience out of pocket costs that are too high and face a shrinking pool of providers in the area. We often struggle to find mental healthcare providers that take our insurance and tend to wait long times to see someone. Furthermore, comprehensive dental and vision care are practically non-existent. 

Other unionized graduate workers have been able to sit down and bargain for significant improvements:

At the University of Connecticut, the graduate workers were able to bargain significant improvements to their healthcare while dramatically reducing their out of pocket costs.

At Harvard, they were able to win $375K in funds to help offset out of pocket costs of their healthcare. 

International graduate workers have the same exact rights as domestic workers in the United States, allowing them to participate in the union. Due to visa restrictions international grads are often part of our most vulnerable communities, because they are unable to obtain an additional off campus income. Furthermore, they pay additional tuition fees, experience a higher cost of moving to Boston, and have their visa status looming as a constant threat which administrators and faculty often exploit. By bargaining together we can ensure in our contract that domestic and international students have the same protections and working conditions.

At other universities, unionized grads have been able to win additional support for international workers.

At Harvard University, they won more than $100,000 in funds to help offset costs associated with visa requirements, including legal fees.

At WPI, they won further protections from federal abuse (pg. 11), requiring law enforcement to provide warrants before turning over information to federal agencies. 

Northeastern University has a systemic problem with harassment and discrimination.  With attempts to intimidate BIPOC and Trans organizers on multiple occasions, and the exploitation of international grad labor,  we are forced to navigate a system designed with only the university’s best interests in mind. 

With a union, we can bargain for better protections, including neutral third party binding arbitration. This process puts a case in front of a neutral arbitrator, hears the facts of the case, and makes a decision based on the facts. Because they are paid by both the union and the university, they are not bound to either. 

At other universities, graduate workers have been able to win better protections from harassment and discrimination.

At UConn, graduate workers won arbitration for harassment and discrimination cases.

At WPI, they have just won similar protections!

We graduate workers are often proud to go the extra mile due to our commitment to research and quality education, but sometimes advisors take that commitment and exploit it, damaging our personal lives and mental health. This behavior not only harms the reputation of the university, but it forces good researchers and teachers out of their industries– often in a discriminatory way. 

With a union, we can bargain for protections from abuse of work, including workload protections and requirements like ensuring that we have the right equipment, workspace, and protections from working in dangerous circumstances. 

Workers at Columbia (see “Workweek”), Harvard (Article 16), UConn and WPI have all won protections from abuse, ensuring they can continue the work on their degree without having to face unrealistic demands from abusive advisors.

With a union, we hope to bargain for improvements for our marginalized members. 

Parents. Graduate workers have won benefits for parents such as guaranteed lactation stations on campus, and can negotiate for assistance with childcare costs. In addition, with the harassment, discrimination and bullying grievance procedures mentioned above, we hope to help grad workers feel comfortable with their choice to become a parent.

LGTBQIA+ Community. Graduate workers have won protections from discrimination for sexual orientation, gender identity and expression at many universities. At WPI, graduate workers won protections and a commitment from the university to help assist graduate workers through a gender transition. At the University of Michigan, unionized grad workers won a host of gender affirming healthcare coverage rights.

Sexual Harassment. Graduate workers at UConn have won the right to pursue sexual harassment claims through the union, rather than just Title IX which historically has only functioned to protect universities from liability rather than victims.