This inter-union cooperation has found a clear basis:

On April 27, the General Meeting of the Innocents decided on the advisability of concluding an Agreement on cooperation with the All-Russian Trade Union of employees of educational, culture, health, sports, state, municipal, municipal and non-profit organizations, trade, credit and financial organizations (the All-Russian trade union of the RPR).

On May 2, the Chairman of the Trade Organization L.N. Tsaregradskaya and the Chairman of the Council of the RPIU S.V.Khramov signed this Agreement, according to which the trade union organization received an additional right to act as the primary trade union organization of the All-Russian Trade Union of the Russian Federation. In turn, the RPRI undertook to protect labor rights and represent the interests of the members of the trade union organization on an equal basis with members of the All-Russian Trade Union of the Russian Trade Union, as well as on the basis of a special appeal by the Trade Organization, the RPIU and its organization will take part in the collective actions carried out by the Trade Organization and organize solidarity actions.

On May 10, the Council of the All-Russian Trade Union of the RPRI approved the Agreement and instructed the Local Committee of the primary trade union organization of employees and specialists of LLC “Wildberry” and organizational or technologically related organizations and its chairman Alexander Alexandrovich Shvets to establish working relations and regular consultations with the trade union committee and the chairman of the Primary Trade Union Organization “Wildberriz” and organizational or technologically connected with it.

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This news comes as studios across the industry have suffered massive layoffs totaling over 8,000 positions. The CWA was able to secure severance benefits for temporary workers and save a number of jobs at Sega in the Allied Employees Guild Improving Sega (AEGIS), but the industry is still massively unorganized in the US as the number of workers totals over 260,000, meaning unions currently make up less than 1%.

The CWA and Microsoft reached a labor neutrality agreement back in June of 2022 that would begin 60 days after the acquisition of Activision.

“This agreement provides a pathway for Activision Blizzard workers to exercise their democratic rights to organize and collectively bargain after the close of the Microsoft acquisition and establishes a high road framework for employers in the games industry. Microsoft’s binding commitments will give employees a seat at the table and ensure that the acquisition of Activision Blizzard benefits the company’s workers and the broader video game labor market.”

CWA President Chris Shelton on labor neutrality agreement

Workers at AQAU are the first to organize under the agreement, but Microsoft also chose a neutral stance towards organizing efforts last year at Zenimax Studios. The workers at Activision will join CODE-CWA along with other tech workers in various industries and companies and joining CWA Locals 9400 (California), 6215 (Texas), and 7250 (Minnesota) respectively.

The post Quality Assurance Workers at Activision Form the Biggest Video Game Union in the US appeared first on Labor Today.

CINCINNATI, OH—Members of UE Local 704, who handle liquid and bulk commodities like bulk salt, fertilizer, petroleum, and chemicals at a marine terminal on the Ohio River, ratified their second contract with Watco on April 8, 2024. Prior to 2016, Kinder-Morgan had employed Local 704 members. While the battle for an initial contract with the new company took two years of difficult negotiations, the successor agreement negotiations took only three days. Members had more bargaining power due to the company’s ongoing struggle to attract and retain DOT-certified employees in the greater Cincinnati area. 

As essential workers in the logistics industry, Local 704 members were never allowed to shelter in place to protect their health during the pandemic. Unfortunately, their first contract with Watco did not have any sick time. “We had to work hard no matter what,” said Vice President Jeremiah Jackson, “I don’t understand why they couldn’t just give us some sick days. Covid gave me pneumonia, and then the company disciplined me for attendance when I missed work. At lots of other jobs people got some help.” Shortly before bargaining, Watco disciplined another member when he didn’t report to work immediately after testing positive for Covid. The entire membership agreed this had to change. 

After discussing contract ideas for a year in monthly membership meetings, the members decided to adopt an aggressive bargaining platform that included substantial wage increases, the introduction of sick time to the contract, and multiple proposals to improve workplace safety. They won an initial wage increase of 7.5 percent, the highest in the history of the local, and four paid sick days per year with no attendance penalty as part of an improved attendance policy.  

The members were also able to gain contract language to keep them safer at their high-risk, all-weather jobs on the river, including wellness checks for members working alone and a requirement for a manager or supervisor to be on site whenever bargaining unit members are working. Watco proposed concessions on the regular work week and holidays, but Local 704 protected their regular Monday through Friday work week and maintained the current holiday structure. In addition to several language improvements in the contract that will help protect the members from unnecessary scheduling of weekend work, they will now receive four hours straight time pay if Watco cancels weekend overtime at the last minute. An improved union leave policy gives Local 704 members the opportunity for more union involvement at the regional and national levels. 

President Matt Hembree said, “Going into negotiations was stressful because we were not sure what was going to happen. Last time was so difficult, but it was clear that now they know they need us to get the work done. Becoming the highest paid hourly Watco employees and top wage earners in our category in Cincinnati, as well as finally getting sick time, is a huge win for Local 704 and we are excited to share our win with other UE members when the Western Regional Council comes to Cinicinnati this fall!” 

The Local 704 bargaining committee consisted of President Matt Hembree and Vice President Jeremiah Jackson. They were assisted by Field Organizer Heather Hillenbrand.

The post UE Local 704 Wins Sick Time, Highest Percent Raises in Local History appeared first on Labor Today.

BALTIMORE, MD—Five days before we planned to vote to authorize our strike at a General Membership Meeting, the graduate workers of UE Local 197-Teachers and Researchers United reached a strong tentative agreement on our first contract. For graduate workers at The Johns Hopkins University (JHU), this monumental win came more than a year after we voted overwhelmingly to unionize and after 47 bargaining sessions with the university administration. A little over two weeks after we reached a full TA, we ratified our first contract, with a 99.5 percent yes margin, the culmination of years of organizing.

Our first contract codifies tangible and historic improvements to what it means to be a graduate worker at Hopkins. Our labor, teaching, and research are foundational to what allows JHU to run and it is through our commitment to a member-driven union that we now have ensured that the university, which cannot function without us, recognizes our value and bargaining power. 

Contract Wins

According to the TRU-UE bargaining committee, our contract “includes life-changing improvements for all grad workers here at JHU and truly historic wins for grad labor.” Top line economic highlights include a stipend increase to $47,000 annually (an over 50 percent increase for some departments), four to five years of guaranteed funding based on division, and a $1,000 signing bonus. The contract also includes several economic wins which have never been seen before in a grad worker contract, including a cash-in-hand subsidy for parents and caregivers, full coverage of dependent health insurance premiums, free local transit passes, and financial support for visa fees. When asked about the economic gains enshrined in the collective bargaining agreement negotiated by TRU-UE Local 197, member Wisam Awadallah said, “This tentative agreement is the culmination of years of organizing and sets a standard to be built on at JHU and across graduate labor. Ratifying this agreement will allow our members to continue teaching our students and do cutting edge research, with less worry about paying our bills, with protection from discrimination, [and] with protected leave to care for our families.”

Our contract also includes a range of major and often unprecedented gains on noneconomic issues. Major wins include the right to maintain a union shop, the establishment of explicit performance standards and just cause in cases of discipline and discharge, and a process which enables more timely resolution of Title IX cases. (Title IX is a federal law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in education.) Unprecedented wins were made in the area of policing on campus, including winning the right to have progressive discipline applied to mental health crises and drug abuse cases, and the right to have peaceful protests on campus not be met with force. On the subject of noneconomic contract wins, TRU-UE bargaining committee member Jayati Sharma said, “We have won our long-deserved seat at the table when it comes to dictating our own working conditions. We are excited to experience these tangible improvements to our working conditions and look forward to the fair implementation of this historic first contract.”

Campaign

The campaign for our contract fight was, in every meaningful sense, the culmination of nearly a decade of member-driven organizing efforts at JHU. While our historic union election vote in early 2023 formally brought us and the university administration to the bargaining table, TRU’s campaign and organizing origins can be traced back to September of 2014. Propelled into action by a set of new university policies ominously titled “The Strategic Plan,” a group of graduate workers began mobilizing across several departments. Alarmed at the university’s failure to listen to its graduate population and cognizent of the value of graduate labor, Teachers and Researchers United took its first steps formulating its initial endeavors on the same foundation that leads us today: How can we build collective power to improve our conditions? 

In the intervening years between TRU’s launch and our 2023 election, TRU members began creating the platform and organizing apparatus that won our election. As early as 2015, TRU launched a campaign to address the inadequacy and high costs of the health insurance plan offered by the university at that time. After several years of dedicated organizing, talking to fellow graduate students and mobilizing, graduate workers have won improvements including parental leave, vision, and dental insurance. Healthcare campaigns continued to be a hallmark of our early organizing efforts. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, TRU continued in its already well-established organizing and advocacy tradition, first collecting over 800 signatures on a petition articulating the relief measures necessary to protect grad workers. After months of escalation, JHU’s President and Provost announced that the university would be directing five million dollars in aid for Ph.D. students. 

Using this momentum, our new affiliation with UE, and a swing back in favor of the right of graduate workers to unionize under the Biden administration, TRU began its final push towards an election. On October 25, 2022, TRU launched our card-signing campaign with a 400-person rally and a total of 1,582 graduate workers — half of our unit — signing their cards on day one. On January 30 and 31, 2023 over 2,000 graduate workers — a supermajority of all Ph.D.s enrolled at JHU — voted. The vote count revealed a historic margin of victory for our election: 97 percent or 2,053 graduate workers voted “yes” to unionize with TRU. In anticipation of our bargaining with the university and committed to formulating a contract proposal that reflects the needs of our membership, graduate workers completed bargaining surveys — more than 1,000 were submitted. In May 2023, with a host of graduate workers rallying in solidarity outside, our bargaining committee sat down to begin its negotiations with the university administration. 

While central tenets of TRU’s platform were a living wage for all, on-time payment, and improved benefits, we decided to begin our contract fight by focusing on our non-economic proposals, including effective grievance procedures, union security, safe working environments, and better protections for international workers. True to their long-held pattern of opposition to graduate organizing, the JHU administration came to the bargaining table vehemently denying our position as workers. During our second bargaining session, the administration issued a series of counter-proposals attesting to that stance and striking out or rejecting health and safety protections, non-discrimination proposals, inclusive work environment proposals, protections for international workers, a right to a fair grievance procedure, and protections against retaliation.

In response to JHU’s assurance that university policies in place were sufficient to protect graduates, TRU took action, calling on its members to share their stories of how those very same policies were failing workers. On June 8, 2023, TRU members packed the bargaining room, joining the bargaining committee, with 15 members reading testimonies from members of our unit to put pressure on administrative officials denying the reality of our conditions. As one worker wrote, “The administration’s belief that existing grievance procedures are sufficient is going to get someone killed; I literally was electrocuted, exposed to toxic metal powders without a respirator, and told that this is my problem to deal with, with zero recourse… I stand with the Union in their desire to place the safety of graduate workers above the profit and egos of program managers.” A little over a month after this action, the bargaining committee secured a tentative agreement on grievance procedure. 

By fall 2023, our bargaining committee was in the thick of negotiations with a persistently oppositional university administration. Using our general membership meetings and contract action team, TRU organizers got to work, mobilizing a series of actions over the course of our Fall semester to place increasing pressure on JHU to meet the needs of their graduate workers. Our bargaining committee saw incredible movement on our proposals in the wake of our “TRU Day of Action,” a cross-campus and division-wide movement undertaken by our members. From a graduate worker walkout in the School of Medicine to an undergraduate teach-in led by workers in the School of Arts and Sciences, hundreds of us made our voices heard. In the bargaining session that followed, our bargaining committee secured an agreement on health and safety and drew closer to an agreement on appointment security.

Despite some huge wins during the fall semester, TRU recognized that after nearly seven months of bargaining, JHU’s continued opposition to our demands required that we begin building a credible strike threat — particularly once we introduced our economic proposals. Recognizing that our collective power and a demonstration of our resolve through strength in numbers was paramount, we began several weeks of speaking with our graduate community about the potential for a strike and introducing a slate of organizing actions to build our momentum. The centerpiece of our organizing efforts towards a strike pledge was a cross-campus practice picket. More than 500 graduate workers showed up to demonstrate across our East Baltimore and Homewood campuses, marching for hours to signal our resolve. In the bargaining session that followed two days later, university administration came to the table with proposals on discipline and discharge and union security. Moreover, we were offered a strong version of union security with the protections of a union shop, securing a strong and lasting union for years to come. With this momentum, TRU organizers continued their work of mobilizing, offering town halls to answer questions regarding the strike, translating our FAQ’s documents into foreign languages for international students, phone banking, and conducting walkthroughs of the offices and labs where our members work. 

On March 7, 2024 TRU launched its strike pledge at our General Membership Meeting. Less than 36 hours later we had over 1,000 signatures. In the weeks that followed, as more graduate workers signed the pledge, we continued to put pressure on the university administration from all sides. In response to JHU’s continued refusal to improve benefits for parents and caregivers, TRU invited the parents and caregivers among us to offer testimony to the struggles they face. Highlighting the inadequacies of what the university currently offers, many of the 20 speakers who offered testimony brought their children with them to the bargaining room. Amidst this escalating pressure placed on them, the university offered to schedule an additional bargaining date, all the while our bargaining committee secured wins on issues like public transit, $2,500 in relocation assistance for international workers, and dependent benefit subsidies for both children and adults ($3,500/year for children under six, $3,000 for legally dependent adults). Finally, on our last day of bargaining, with a majority of our unit signed onto a strike pledge and five days before our GMM to authorize that strike, our bargaining committee secured a full tentative agreement with massive wins and a contract that will set a strong foundation for years to come. 

Next Steps

Once our tentative agreement was reached, we made numerous efforts to relay to our members the importance and successes of our TA. We held divisional town halls, did walkthroughs, answered questions through email and Slack, and encouraged active discussion. After a three-day voting period, our contract was ratified on April 18 with a 99.5 percent yes margin! We are so proud and elated to have this major support from our bargaining unit, and to put into place our protections and grievance procedure.

Our next focus is to write and put into action our local constitution. The constitution will be written with elected delegates spearheading the effort. We are currently holding elections for the constitution writing committee. Open meetings will be held in which any member can attend and provide their opinions on constitutional language. In this new phase of our university we are energized to have an organization that maintains our standards for supporting and protecting each other, and even those outside our unit.

Our organizing base was built up through walkthroughs, personal relationships, and encouraging further involvement to event attendees. Our amazing organizers were crucial to keeping our members informed, relaying member priorities and ideas to other organizers and to our bargaining committee. Our major success could not have been possible without the tireless efforts over this past year by our bargaining committee and UE Staff! We thank all of our organizers for their dedication to providing our bargaining unit with these rights and protections.

The Local 197 (TRU-UE) bargaining committee consisted of Aaron Salisbury, Alaa Saad, Sandy Peeples, Anna Word, Breanne Kincaid, Connor Krill, Fearghus Horan, Irika Sinha, Janvi Madhani, Jayati Sharma, Jeffrey Davis, Joanna Zienkiewicz, Lily Liang, Logan Kostic, Marie Pearce, Maryam Esperanza Razaz, Sreyas Chintapalli, Steven Sola, Verónica Ríos Saavedra, Vivian Su, and William Brakewood. Kwaku Quansah is a former member. They were assisted by International Representative Tara McCauley and UE Project Organizers Katie Shy and Andrew Eneim.

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The World Federation of Trade Unions along with our brothers and sisters in Palestine remembers and condemns this day every year, which marked the beginning of the occupation, the illegal settlement and the crimes of Israel against the Palestinian people.

Today, 76 years after the Nakba Day, a new Nakba is being performed by the murderous state of Israel, with the support of the USA, the EU and the rest of their allies. Continuing its methodical tactic of genocide and the total expulsion of the Palestinians from their land, Israel is proceeding with the attack on Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are trying to survive. The intensifying aggression and the imminent attack are going to multiply the civilian and child victims in the Gaza Strip.

The consistent and principled support and solidarity with the heroic Palestinian people had always been a priority for the international class-oriented trade union movement. The only way to guarantee and consolidate peace and security in the region is to immediately end Israeli occupation and settlement on Palestinian land, as stipulated in dozens of resolutions of the UN and other International Organisations and institutions that have never been respected by Israel, including the recent decision of the International Court. An independent Palestinian state must be established on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, guaranteeing the right of return for Palestinian refugees.

On the occasion of the 76^th anniversary of Nakba Day, the WFTU expresses once again its full solidarity with the Palestinian people. The class-oriented trade union movement, will continue proudly waving the Palestinian flag next to the flag of the WFTU, demanding an end to the genocide, and standing in the right side of history!

We reiterate our call to affiliates and friends to intensify all actions in solidarity with Palestine through mass demonstrations, mobilizations, protests, strikes, initiatives and struggles of various forms, using the means of military, commercial, academic and institutional boycotts.

We salute the militant students in the US, Europe and elsewhere, who despite the repression, have flooded dozens of universities demanding an end to the massacre and the non-engagement of their countries in the crime against the Palestinian people.

In the framework of intensifying the internationalist solidarity for Palestine, the WFTU is organizing a solidarity visit of a wide International Delegation with the participation of trade unionist of the WFTU from every continent, inside Palestine, for the last week of June. This visit aims to strengthen the solidarity and support of the large WFTU family to the hard struggle of the Palestinian people. Through the visits in several Palestinian areas, through the activities organized, and through the meetings with Palestinian workers, officials, refugees and the political leadership of the country, the WFTU International Delegation will convey in a more direct way the message that our brothers and sisters in Palestine are not alone in their struggle.

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WHARTON & IRVINGTON, NJ—Both Refresco and Chasen Fiber Technologies thought they could intimidate their mainly immigrant workers — who are members of UE Locals 115 and 155 respectively — by running internal I-9 audits. Under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), employers are required to verify an employee’s identity and their eligibility to work in the country within three days of hiring them. However, employers have the right to audit their own records for compliance, quality, accuracy, and to comply with business contracts. At Refresco, companies like Pepsi, Coke, Walmart, and other providers have the right to view employee I-9 documents. 

UE members at both Chasen and Refresco were able to win explicit audit procedures requiring advance notice to the bargaining unit and to the union prior to implementing the audit, notification of the union when external companies request to view I-9 documents, a specified time period where an employee is able to correct any discrepancy with their documentation, and translation of all notices into English and Spanish.

“We were able to correct everyone’s I-9 forms and the employees were able to keep their jobs,” said Carlos Quinones, vice president of Local 155 and shop chief steward at Chasen. “On the agreement, the company pretty much agreed to everything. They can’t share information to a third party and they can’t ask for papers for three years, and they would have to notify the local union before any type of decision is made. The members were also satisfied with the agreement.”

Chasen agreed to give a six-month notice prior to implementation of an audit and expiration of any work permit, a window of two years where an employee that was fired for not being in compliance with the I-9 documents could be rehired if there was an available position, and not to use E-Verify unless the Company’s participation is required by law. Prior to implementing E-Verify, Integreon (the parent company of Chasen) must demonstrate that the creation of a position or participation in optional government programs could not be facilitated through other Integreon subsidiaries. 

At Refresco, workers were able to win strong protections for fired workers. The Company fired two workers for having expired work permits, one of which was a member of the Local 115 executive board. With this side agreement, both workers will be reinstated if they demonstrate tghat they are authorized to work in the country within a year of their termination. Going forward, if a worker is not able to produce the required documentation during an audit, they will be placed on a four month leave of absence where they can gather the documentation. Most importantly, this means that workers can keep their healthcare coverage. 

The Local 115 side agreement was negotiated by President Abdon Moran, Chief Steward César Moreira, and Ivan Rios. The Local 155 side agreement was negotiated by Vice President and shop Chief Steward Carlos Quinones. Both locals were assisted by Field Organizer Eric Cortés-Kopp.

The post UE: Locals 115 and 155 Secure Strong Union Rights During Immigration Audits appeared first on Labor Today.

ERIE, PA—UE Local 506 hosted several UE grad worker locals for a training and strategizing meet up in mid-March. Grad workers from public and private universities at different stages of organization (fight for first contract, having a successful strike threat, going into compensation bargaining) got together to learn from each other and from other UE locals including Sargent and Refresco workers (Local 243 and 115, respectively).

The grad workers spent an afternoon workshopping how to use a grievance fight as a campus-wide organizing tool. An important takeaway was to use grievances strategically. It would be unwise to fill out many grievances without having a strong backing from union stewards and without considering how to use grievances to build a larger fight. Ideally, these grievance campaigns also teach the employer to respect the official process laid out in the contract and the union or face the consequences.

Additionally, grad workers got the chance to sit in on Local 506’s general membership meeting (with homemade pizza from the strike kitchen!) and meeting beers (from the union hall keg!). Seeing the morale and spirit of the 506 membership was inspiring, and gives us a goal of where we want our memberships to be in the future. 

We were also given a history lesson on UE from Director of Organization Mark Meinster (grad students love lectures!) and got to spend one-on-one time with Local 506 president Scott Slawson. This gave us insights on the general struggles that have been faced by unions in the past. It was notable that after the first contract, it will always be in the employer’s best interest to undermine the protections of employees’ laid out in the contract as much as possible. This is much of what we have been seeing in our respective institutions, as university administrations have been reluctant to respect the grievance process, or have not been enforcing wage increases, or even something as simple as a transportation pass. 

Building community and coalition across grad unions within UE is a powerful tool that can help workers across the country win bigger fights and secure more equitable workplaces. Furthermore, this meeting increased our organizing tools, which will be crucial as we continue to build recognition and respect as a local. 

Locals participating in the meeting were UE Local 256 (MIT Graduate Student Union), UE Local 1105 (University of Minnesota Graduate Labor Union),  UE Local 1498 (NMSU Graduate Workers United), UE Local 1466 (United Graduate Workers of the University of New Mexico), UE Local 1043 (Stanford Graduate Workers Union), and UE Local 300 (Cornell Graduate Students United).

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Comrade Rano identified his name and action with the struggles of the working class of the country, and particularly with the mass rising of 1969 lead by the trade union movement, which drove Bangladesh towards the liberation war 2 years later.

Haider Akber Khan Rano passed away on the 11^th of May 2024, at the age of 82 years, but his example and his legacy will continue inspire the struggles of the working class in Bangladesh.

The WFTU expresses the condolences to comrade Rano’s family and comrades.

The post WFTU Condolences for the Loss of Haider Akbar Khan Rano appeared first on Labor Today.

From Adrian Ray-Avalani and Emma Kennedy, UE Local 1122-NUGW | Photo Courtesy of ueunion.org | UE News Reuse Policy

Close to midnight on February 21, 2024, after a grueling 15-hour bargaining session, graduate workers at Northwestern reached a tentative agreement with the university administration on their collective bargaining contract. Members of the bargaining committee and observing members broke into applause and hugged one another as the agreement was finalized. Three weeks later, on March 15, 2024, a majority of Northwestern graduate workers voted to ratify this hard-fought and groundbreaking first contract.

Northwestern University Graduate Workers (NUGW-UE Local 1122) has the privilege to represent graduate students and workers whose labor across both of the university’s campuses forms the backbone of Northwestern’s success as a university. At Northwestern, graduate workers in a variety of degree programs perform crucial services for the university, ranging from research and teaching to departmental administration, stage design, and clinical rotations. NUGW members from a variety of different backgrounds, including domestic workers, international workers, nontraditional students, workers of color, and workers who are queer, trans, disabled, and parents, came together to demand that their labor for the university be fairly recognized.

“This remarkable first contract wouldn’t have been possible without the marginalized organizers who fought to empower our most vulnerable workers,” said Rivaan Kakkaramadam, a graduate worker in the Interdisciplinary Biological Sciences (IBiS) department. “With this contract, we have enshrined our hard-won gains and will keep building on them until we attain the contract every grad worker deserves.”

Sam English, a graduate worker in the English department, commented, “[This contract]  provides graduate workers with powers in the workplace that we needed yesterday. […] These are huge wins for teaching and laboratory assistants across the Northwestern community, as our time and labor have for too long been overlooked and exploited. This contract is the first step in demonstrating how intrinsic we are to fostering and maintaining Northwestern’s academic excellence and world-class research.”

Contract Campaign

NUGW was founded in the fall of 2016, a month after the historic National Labor Relations Board decision that confirmed that graduate workers at universities are workers and have the right to form a union. Shortly thereafter, in the spring of 2017, we had our first big campaign win: successfully pressuring the Northwestern administration to offer doctoral students five full years of funding. Organizing across departments increased in 2020 during the early COVID-19 pandemic when lab workers designated as essential workers were forced back onto campus before it was safe to do so. In the summer of 2022, NUGW affiliated with UE, and shortly thereafter rang in the new year of 2023 with a landslide NLRB election win with 93 percent of workers voting in favor of forming a union. 

As we approached the start of bargaining, the pace of organizing picked up significantly. NUGW’s history has always been one centered around on-the-ground, face-to-face organizing and agitating, and this fight was no different. Throughout the bargaining process members regularly walked through university departments and offices, approaching their colleagues face to face to have conversations about their experiences as graduate workers. “One of the little things, the everyday parts of being an organizer with NUGW, was doing walkthroughs. On the face of it, walkthroughs are talking to your coworkers and checking in about union work, but more deeply, it means changing how we relate to each other as human beings,” said Summer Pappachen, a graduate worker in Political Science and member of the bargaining committee. “When I did my first round of walkthroughs in the Political Science department, I spoke to maybe 10 people over the course of three hours. […] I came away with so many stories of poverty, anxiety, nervousness, fear, and disheartenment regarding our working conditions in the department. I came away from it with the following phrases ringing in my head, ‘Thanks Summer, I feel seen for the first time in this department,’ or ‘Thank you for actually asking how I am, usually people don’t do that.’”

Many graduate workers disclosed ways in which they weren’t being treated fairly at work, including advisors or supervisors making unreasonable demands on their time; experiences of identity-related discrimination; and the long, confusing, and expensive processes for international students to handle visas and taxes. These reports led directly to the language-related proposals with which we began bargaining in June 2023: protections against discrimination and abuses of authority; a contractually enshrined grievance procedure; just cause for discipline and discharge; and agency shop.

Inside and Outside Bargaining

The nine-month long process of fighting for a contract involved sustained and intense effort both inside and outside the bargaining room. While the bargaining committee negotiated over proposals at the table with administration, department organizers held informational town halls for their departments and addressed any department-specific concerns about the negotiation process, and our contract action team and organizing committee strategized more broadly, planning out potential actions, addressing misinformation from the administration, working with faculty and staff, and ensuring that NUGW’s strength was primed to apply pressure to administration whenever necessary.

When preparing our economic article proposals, the bargaining committee sought to convey to the administration not only our membership’s specific economic demands — for a fair living wage and for dental and vision insurance to be fully covered as part of our student healthcare plan — but also a broader demand: that the university immediately begin holding itself accountable to its mission statement, which claims to value diversity and belonging on its campuses. Accordingly, the bargaining committee put forth proposals including a wage increase, fully covered dental and vision healthcare, a significantly expanded childcare grant program, inclusion of dependents in the student healthcare plan, international worker cost subsidies, and mandatory Americans with Disabilities Act compliance and regular accessibility audits for primary departmental buildings.

On Nov 1, 2023, the day that the bargaining committee introduced its economic proposals, members packed the halls outside the bargaining room, confronting the administrators with the strength of our demand that our worth be fairly recognized.

When the University stalled on giving an initial response to our economic proposals, repeatedly canceling or postponing the next bargaining date, NUGW members held a rally to demand “Pay, Power, and Protections NOW,” featuring speeches from faculty, undergraduate students, graduate workers, postdocs, and Northwestern University Library Workers Union (NULWU) workers.

As bargaining proceeded, workers began to escalate their efforts to build a credible strike threat in January 2024. On January 29 at a General Membership Meeting, NUGW launched a pledge to strike if the university did not show movement at the table. Within 48 hours, 1,000 workers had pledged to strike, and in the face of that number the university was forced to finally begin bargaining with us in earnest. Throughout February, members worked tirelessly to mobilize their coworkers, disseminating the strike pledge and having thousands of individual conversations about what a contract could do for each and every person. On the final day of bargaining, over 2,000 strike pledges, and the countless hours of organizing behind that, pushed the university to improve their economic offers, and to settle a tentative agreement which met the majority of our membership’s core demands and which provided “Pay, Power, and Protections Now.”

Emma Wilkinson, a graduate worker in Linguistics, reflected that, “Contract negotiations were a long fight but our bargaining committee worked hard to provide great argumentation on our behalf. It was encouraging to see how action on the part of membership in the form of surveys, pack-the-halls events, open bargaining sessions, and a strike pledge moved NU admin’s proposals. I am looking forward to seeing how we can continue to support our fellow grad workers through the grievance process because we can take on many more issues with our new contract!”

Contract Wins

The three-year contract ratified by NUGW members last month contains significant and transformative wins for graduate workers, and simultaneously lays a strong foundation for organizing fights to come. We won “Pay” — an incredible 22 percent stipend increase, to $45,000 as of September 2024, and 100 percent coverage of dental and vision insurance. We won “Power” with agency shop being enshrined in our TA on union security, meaning that all members of our bargaining unit will be required to pay dues or agency fees. This sets us up to be a strong, united force on campus indefinitely. Finally, we won “Protections” — NUGW was able to enshrine a robust grievance procedure, allowing workers to pursue formal resolution of any violations of the contract. In particular, graduate workers are now able to require just cause for discipline or discharge, to bring a union steward to any meetings in which they anticipate being disciplined, and to take unlimited paid sick days. Additional key wins included our nondiscrimination article, which contains protections against discrimination based on caste that are groundbreaking in academia; an expanded childcare grant program and inclusion in caregiving programs historically only afforded to non-graduate employees; and a university fund for international student visa and immigration fees, including fees for their dependents. 

After the TA was finalized, members reflected on the change that this first contract would effect in their lives. Tiffany Christian, a graduate worker in Statistics, pointed to the workplace protections in our language articles as a reason why she was excited to vote to ratify the tentative agreement. “[The contract] provides solid workplace protections around health and safety in the midst of an ongoing pandemic. In light of changing CDC recommendations and Northwestern’s abandonment of COVID-19 tracking, testing, and masking requirements, I am encouraged by the inclusion of Leave of Absence Section 2 in the tentative agreement, which grants workers the right not to be denied paid leave after a confirmed direct exposure to an infectious disease. […] NUGW has empowered us to protect ourselves against irresponsible COVID guidelines, and other workplace hazards as graduate workers. I’m happy to be represented by a union that cares about my health, safety, and well-being.”

Life-Changing Contract

Raina Bhagat, a graduate worker in Comparative Literature, commented that one reason she voted to ratify the contract was because “when I needed new glasses […] I was asked to pay over $600 for a new pair of glasses at an in-network provider. With a full vision insurance subsidy and more competitive pay, this number won’t devastate other workers the way it devastated me,” while Erica Rosario, a graduate worker in the IBiS department, said she was excited to vote to ratify the contract because “I cannot afford to wait any longer for the increase in pay, protections and support this tentative agreement provides. For me, this contract means non-discrimination policy protections, clearing medical bills, and having financial capacity to support my six-year-old niece.” 

Two weeks after NUGW reached our TA, University of Chicago’s Graduate Student Union (UC GSU) reached a TA on their own first contract, also featuring a stipend raise to $45,000 along with several other significant wins for UC-GSU graduate workers. In early March, the incredible Service Employees’ International Union (SEIU) Local 73 also ratified a contract for graduate workers at Illinois State University, and just last week came to a TA protecting school support staff at Chicago Public Schools.

This series of Illinois-area wins exemplifies the power of solidarity and of a united struggle. Our wins are transformative for our own members, but they are also collective wins: each one moves the needle forward in demanding what we deserve, and each one contributes to changing the landscape of graduate school, academia, and education for everyone.

Next Steps

Although we are incredibly proud of the transformative change that our first contract affords all graduate workers at Northwestern, the fight has nonetheless only just begun. While we were able to secure incredible wins, Northwestern administration made it clear that their claims of valuing marginalized students were merely lip service, setting a hard line on dependent healthcare and wholesale rejecting our accessibility proposal four separate times. This frankly shameful behavior, all while the university continues to recruit students with promises to “champion access, diversity, and belonging,”  only shows, however, that we must continue to hold the administration accountable to their own stated values.. NUGW’s strong history of issue-based campaigns and subsequent wins will bolster us in this next phase of mid-contract issue campaigns to secure further protections and benefits. With the power of a strong contract behind us, and with the ability to form coalitions across groups on campus, we will make NU a better place for graduate workers with specific needs.

Since the contract has been ratified, our most immediate fight has been regarding the scope of our bargaining unit. Despite strong language in our recognition article, Northwestern continues to fail to acknowledge the crucial labor that certain graduate workers, including graduate assistants doing administrative tasks, first year workers in lab rotations, some workers on fellowship, and more, provide to the university, without any of which Northwestern would certainly not be the world class institution it touts itself to be. Membership-driven efforts, such as a petition to administration to grant all graduate workers the June stipend raise, have led the fight about bargaining unit scope thus far, while the bargaining committee and other elected officers have transitioned to drafting our local constitution, handling grievances, training new stewards, and beginning the work of implementing our new contract. In addition, we are also excited to support the newly-formed Northwestern University Postdocs’ Union (NUPU), whose fight for fair pay, power, and protections is about to begin.

Gracie Siffer, a graduate worker in IBiS, speaks to her experience over this past intense yet historic year for NUGW: 

Organizing on campus has been one of the most rewarding parts of my Ph.D. experience. It is easy to get lost in the moment of a specific fight and feel hopeless, but if we look back even two years ago there has been SO much realized that was once only a glimmer in an organizer’s eye.  We are an affiliated and recognized union now, we have a contract with our employer, and we have even successfully started enforcing our contract. Membership has skyrocketed, and ideas are flourishing everywhere on how to pressure admin to respect both the letter and spirit of the contract. The goal has shifted in my short time here from ‘we ought to have a recognized union’ to ‘we have to make sure every worker is covered under our contract,’ and I can’t wait to see what’s next!

The UE Local 1122-NUGW bargaining committee consisted of Alejandro Abisambra, Jade Basinski, Maddie Brucker, Lawrence Chillrud, Kavi Chintam, Peter Cummings, Adam Goldsmith, Jack Hamill, Reem Ibrahim, Lauren Johnson, Esther (Em) Kamm, Cataldo Lamarca, Elisabeth Latawiec, Thomas McKenzie-Smith, Behailu Mihirete, Ben Oxley, Summer Pappachen, Adrian Ray-Avalani, Jakob Reinke, Mounica Sreesai, Drew Weidner, Teke Wiggin, and Ruoxi Zhu. They were assisted by UE Staff Coordinator Kim Lawson, International Representative Valentina Luketa, and Project Organizers Eugene Lim, Emilie Lozier, and Carla Patricia Reyes.

The post UE: Northwestern University Graduate Workers Raise the Bar for Graduate Education in First Contract Fight appeared first on Labor Today.

“NECA wants us to continue working day in and day out with NO paid time off, and FORCED unpaid furlough on holidays. Union workers fought hard to set the original standard for paid holidays and PTO across the workforce. Management at the NECA contractors we work for enjoy the benefits of that hard-fought paid time off, but we don’t. It’s time for that to change.”

Kaylin Ullman, Local 46 strike captain

Local 46 has “not been on strike since after WWII,” said Megan Kirby. “We DID NOT want to call for a STRIKE but NECA has left us no choice.” Members of Local 46 were staging a rally on Monday April 15th in support of the LE members in Bellevue, WA. Strike training will continue the following week.

One NECA contractor, Net Com, has already separated from the organization and as such has been removed from the strike list. LE workers that are not employed by Net Com, Project Labor Agreement (PLA) or a Community Workforce Agreement (CWA) are, as of this writing, on strike.

“These well-trained and specialized electricians deserve a contract that reflects the value of their expertise and the importance of their work. Their wages, working conditions and quality of life should reflect their dedication to the craft and to keeping the public safe. But so far, employers are treating them like they are disposable and easily replaced. It’s frustrating because we’ve been in negotiations since January — and now time is running out.”

Sean Bagsby, Business Manager for IBEW 46

The post Limited Energy Unit of IBEW Local 46 on Strike appeared first on Labor Today.