Northwestern University Graduate Workers

Bargaining Committee Recommends Full TA to Membership

After 15 bargaining session, including a 14+ hour marathon final session, the bargaining committee is recommending membership accept the full tentative agreement!

Why Unionize?

Explore resources to learn why a graduate union on campus can increase your wages, create an arbitration system, and build structures to support parents, BIPOC, workers with disabilities, international students, and ALL graduate workers.

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The best way to make sure your needs are met by a contract is making sure your colleagues know about your priorities! Let your fellow organizers and your bargaining committee know issues you are facing via our "Contact Us" form.

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NUGW Bargaining Committee Recommends Tentative Agreement

Read about the Tentative Agreement

Bargaining Sessions are Going on Now!

Follow all our updates on the bargaining tracker!

Bargaining Tracker

5 Point Platform for Grad Worker Rights

Competitive Pay through Graduation Day

Higher base stipend with yearly raises, stable funding past Year 5, and a free opt-in U-Pass for all graduate workers.

Comprehensive Healthcare

Vision, dental, and dependent insurance at no extra cost, and no lapses in health coverage during medical leave.

Support for International Students

Legal support for immigration, visa processing, and tax filing available in multiple languages.

Why We Unionize

NUGW is built on grassroots organizing across every department and graduate program at Northwestern. Hear from your department organizers about why they dedicate their time to bringing their fellow graduate workers together to win a collectively bargained contract.

Have questions about our campaign?

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Full Tentative Agreement BC Recommendation

By NUGW | February 22, 2024

This is the Bargaining Committee’s first official communication since yesterday’s bargaining session. The Bargaining Committee officially recommends this Tentative Agreement (TA), as outlined below, to members. First, a TL;DR of what’s in our tentative agreement: A guaranteed base stipend of $41,000 starting June 2024, $45,000 starting September 2024 (a 21.8% increase over the current base stipend), and an $1,000 signing bonus immediately upon…

Feb 01 Bargaining Update

By NUGW | February 2, 2024

Fourteenth Bargaining Session Complete TLDR: ESCALATION WORKS! Our 1000+ strike pledges led to big wins, including 100% dental and 100% vision coverage. Admin continues to lowball us in compensation and support for international workers. But now we are in a better position than ever to put their feet to the fire. All hands on deck!…

Jan 10 Bargaining Update

By NUGW | January 10, 2024

Thirteenth Bargaining Session Complete TLDR: Admin came back to the table with more unsatisfactory counterproposals and made minimal movement yet again. TAs today. Despite NU’s lowballing, we are all still committed to settling a contract. In a show of our seriousness, we presented a reasonable counter on compensation, including 48.8k in annual pay, and await…

Dec 13 Bargaining Update

By NUGW | December 13, 2023

Twelfth Bargaining Session Complete TLDR: After 55 days of stalling, the Northwestern administration finally presented their “counters” to our economic proposals. The message was clear: disrespect. With 1000+ grad workers taking the wage survey, nearly 100 grad workers packing the hall to the bargaining room in October, and 500+ grad workers rallying for Pay, Power,…

November 01 Bargaining Update

By NUGW | November 1, 2023

Eleventh Bargaining Session Complete TLDR: We PACKED THE HALLS and GOT RESULTS! FOUR Tentative Agreements today: Non-Discrimination, Union Security, Management Rights, and No Strike, No Lockout ALL language proposals have been TA’d FULL FOCUS to econ now Big wins in agency shop and ability to grieve abuse of authority…we deserve and need these protections and…

October 19 Bargaining Update

By NUGW | October 19, 2023

Tenth Bargaining Session Complete TLDR: THREE Tentative Agreement today: Discipline & Discharge, Workload, and Labor Management Committee! TWO language proposals left: Union Security and Nondiscrimination Economic proposals have reached the table Come out to our Speak Out/Scavenger Hunt on Friday (10/20) to speak out about Union Shop, Nondiscrimination, and NU Finances! Pack the halls for our 11/1…

October 3 Bargaining Update

By NUGW | October 3, 2023

Ninth Bargaining Session Complete TLDR: ONE Tentative Agreement today: International Employee Rights! We’re waiting on admin to deliver counters to our articles and information we need. The fall is heating up! Make your voice heard-fill out the wage survey (MEMBERS CHECK YOUR EMAILS!), join walkthroughs, attend walkthrough trainings, and come to the NUGW-UE history session on…

September 14 Bargaining Update

By NUGW | September 14, 2023

Eighth Bargaining Session Complete! TLDR: FOUR Tentative Agreements today and ALL language proposals are being actively negotiated! (check them out on the bargaining tracker) We reached a TA on Appointment Notification, giving workers much clearer information about job expectations and responsibilities for TA and RA positions. We continue to fight for a range of employee…

Aug 30 Bargaining Update

By NUGW | August 30, 2023

Seventh Bargaining Session Complete TLDR: Three Tentative Agreements today, the most we’ve ever had in one session! HUGE win for upper year grad workers in cases of terminated or canceled appointments Admin continues to ignore the inextricable link between our roles as students and employees in our Discipline & Discharge article…and we continue to fight…

Aug 23 Bargaining Update

By NUGW | August 23, 2023

Sixth Bargaining Session Complete TLDR: One more Tentative Agreement today, and it’s a BIG one: the Grievance Procedure. Check details in the bargaining tracker. Admin gave us an egregious counter proposal on international worker rights. Give us your testimonies to read at the table next week. Of the 22 articles on the table, we have…

August 09 Bargaining Update

By NUGW | August 9, 2023

Fifth Bargaining Session Complete! TLDR: 1 more Tentative Agreement today! Check for updates in the bargaining tracker The athletics scandal has exposed Northwestern’s inadequate harassment prevention policies to the national eye. We continued to push for non-discrimination language backed by a grievance procedure to ensure a safer future for graduate workers Open shop outrage: NU…

July 27 Bargaining Update

By NUGW | August 8, 2023

Fourth Bargaining Session Complete! TLDR: Two more Tentative Agreements today! Check for updates in the bargaining tracker. Admin questioned the validity of our democratically elected union in an effort to push back against union shop Admin proposed censoring our ability to have union conversations on “company time” Union Wednesdays begin next week for the whole month of August! Meet before…

July 3rd Bargaining Update

By NUGW | July 3, 2023

Third day of bargaining complete! TLDR We reached two () Tentative Agreements today! Check for updates in the bargaining tracker. Admin introduced counter-proposals that would remove protections for discrimination based on race, gender, and other protected classes from our proposed grievance procedure. Hot off the heels of bargaining day , come to our CAT meeting today (at TGS Commons or on zoom) at…

June 26th Bargaining Update

By NUGW | July 3, 2023

Second day of bargaining complete! TLDR We reached two () Tentative Agreements today! Check for updates in the bargaining tracker. Admin introduced counter-proposals that would remove protections for discrimination based on race, gender, and other protected classes from our proposed grievance procedure. Hot off the heels of bargaining day , come to our CAT meeting today (at TGS Commons or on zoom) at…

The NUGW monogram. The letters N. U. G. W in bold black font, surrounded by a black box. On the left and right sides of the box, there is a space with the Chicago star and a lightning bolt.

A majority of grad workers have pledged to vote YES!

By NUGW | January 2, 2023

More than 1600 graduate workers at Northwestern University have pledged to vote yes in our union election. The MAJORITY of graduate workers at Northwestern are saying a resolute YES TO OUR UNION! We are voting YES because we deserve: Competitive Pay through Graduation Day Comprehensive Healthcare Support for International Students Professional Standards in Labs…

Comprehensive Healthcare

By NUGW | January 2, 2023

Happy Holidays to those who celebrated last week, or continue to celebrate this week. If you haven’t heard the news, our union election will take place in just a few weeks on January 10th and 11th! If you haven’t yet, take a minute to look up where your polling place will be and what times…

Big purple letters saying "election on January 10th-11th" next to image of hand putting ballot in voting box.

Major Update: Election on Jan 10 and 11th!

By NUGW | December 20, 2022

Our union election will take place on Tuesday January 10th and Wednesday January 11th A supermajority of you signed cards authorizing an election, over a thousand of you have pledged to VOTE YES, and when we come back from Winter Break it will be time to vote! Over the last several weeks, your coworkers on…

Election FAQ

By NUGW | December 20, 2022

NUGW Union Election Basics We are having an election to ratify our Union and secure our collective power! Come out and Vote YES for NUGW-UE on Jan 10 and Jan 11, 2023! This is our chance to secure our collective power and earn real wins for grad workers! Voting times and locations depend on your…

Big purple text reading International Student Support next to a box with a hand putting a voting ballot inside.

Support for International Students

By NUGW | December 19, 2022

Together we sent a powerful message of solidarity and unity by having a supermajority of 2000+ graduate workers sign cards authorizing a union election in under one month! Our colleagues, friends, and coworkers called in a united voice for an election, and we have earned that election. Now every grad worker has a chance to…

Purple Background with big white letters saying "Professional Standards" next to a drawing of hand putting a ballot in a voting box.

Fight for professional standards in labs & classrooms

By Communications Committee | December 12, 2022

You all should know how truly astounding it is that 2000+ of us signed cards authorizing a union election in under one month. Now, in two weeks almost 1000 of us have already pledged to vote YES on election day. We are the third largest union filing in the country in 2022, only trailing our…

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