Posts tagged research assistants
HGSU-UAW Strike Becomes Longest in Union History as Harvard Holds Firm at Bargaining Table
May 28, 2026 // The Harvard Graduate Students Union-United Auto Workers plans to picket through Commencement after its 27th bargaining session with Harvard ended Thursday without a contract, pushing the walkout into its 31st day — the longest strike in the union’s history. In an email sent two days before Thursday’s session, HGSU-UAW told the University it would consider a membership vote to end the strike if Harvard moved on five core issues: paid immigration leave, an agency shop, a grievance process for harassment and discrimination, paid medical leave, and pay parity between teaching fellows and research assistants.
Grad student union to negotiate new contract next month
April 15, 2026 // The union said that in negotiations, it will “fight against dangerous assaults” on members’ academic freedom and ability to protest on campus. In its bargaining goals, GSOC emphasized protecting international and noncitizen student workers in the wake of the Trump administration’s threats to revoke students’ visas and crack down on political speech on college campuses. In bargaining sessions, the committee also plans to urge NYU to expand members’ current health care plan to include “high-quality” dental and vision care. While the current contract does not detail members’ vision care plan, it states that the university must reimburse out-of-pocket medical and dental care expenses. GSOC said earlier this month that NYU reimbursed graduate student workers $60,000 in health care backpay after it “miscalculated” how much they were owed.
University of Michigan Graduate Student Researchers Vote to Join Union
April 2, 2026 // Over 2,200 graduate student research assistants join the Graduate Employees Organization Local 3550 of the American Federation of Teachers.
Graduate fellows seek to unionize in unprecedented move
March 31, 2026 // The move appears to be the first of its kind at a private U.S. institution of higher education, something union organizers argue is made possible by a novel Rhode Island law passed in August that explicitly codifies the right of graduate student employees — including fellows not working as teaching or research assistants — to unionize. Graduate fellows are students who receive stipend funding unrelated to whether or not they officially work as research or teaching assistants. The University’s current contract with GLO includes only graduate student employees recognized by the National Labor Relations Board, many of whom are teaching or research assistants
Should RAs be included in the Penn State graduate student union? University files appeal
January 27, 2026 // The Coalition of Graduate Employees at Penn State worked for years for the roughly 5,000 graduate students to vote in a union election. Graduate students previously tried to unionize in 2017-18 but were unsuccessful. Other unionization efforts have also been in the works at Penn State, including for faculty. In December the Penn State Faculty Alliance filed a petition to hold a union election for Penn State faculty. Teamsters Local 8, a labor union representing technical service workers at every Penn State campus, is also seeking to significantly expand its membership by organizing some university workers who currently fall outside of its scope.
Penn graduate student workers could strike next month
January 14, 2026 // Penn, the largest employer in Philadelphia, has seen a wave of student-worker organizing in recent years, including resident assistants, graduate students, postdocs and research associates, as well as training physicians in the University of Pennsylvania Health System. The region has also seen a couple other university strikes in recent years. In 2023 graduate workers at Temple University walked off the job for 42 days amid contract negotiations, and in a separate action at Rutgers University, educators, researchers, and clinicians went on strike for a week.
U-M graduate student research assistants seek to unionize
November 3, 2025 // Ahead of the rally, over 1,500 graduate student research assistants have signed unionization cards. They need a few hundred more to sign up to reach the mandated 30% to set a union vote.
Op-ed: Stanford’s Graduate Student Union Tries to Stifle Dissent
September 4, 2025 // At the University of Chicago, graduate students in a similar position have taken their union to federal court, arguing that forced support of the union violates their constitutional rights. In Graduate Students for Academic Freedom v. Graduate Students United, the plaintiffs—including Jewish students—say they are being compelled to fund a union that promotes the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel, a stance they view as antisemitic. The graduate unions at both Stanford and Chicago are registered as local chapters of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, a national union that funds progressive activism.
Postdoctoral scholars and research assistants at Penn vote to unionize
July 24, 2025 // Research Associates and Postdocs United at Penn would join the United Auto Workers labor union, which represents over 120,000 academic workers across the country, including 4,000 graduate workers at Penn who voted to unionize last year. Will Drayer, a postdoctoral researcher in materials science and engineering at Penn and a forefront member of the campaign to unionize, said the next steps include democratically electing a bargaining committee and surveying members to establish clear priorities before entering contract negotiations with the university.
Commentary: Ivy Leaguers Aren’t Auto Workers
July 21, 2025 // In general, NLRB decisions are fake law made by fake judges who have to interpret a poorly written statute from 90 years ago that is based on assumptions about industrial organization that no longer obtain in the United States. But the NLRB remains powerful nonetheless, and its decisions matter. That’s why Russell Burgett, a doctoral candidate at Cornell University, which is private, is asking the NLRB to overturn the 2016 Columbia ruling. He isn’t a member of the Cornell graduate students’ union, a UE affiliate, and he said in charges filed with the NLRB on Monday that his choice not to join makes it harder for him to complete his education.