Aug 23 Bargaining Update

We completed our sixth bargaining session! We reached a Tentative Agreement on ONE more article (Grievance Procedure). You can view the text on our bargaining tracker. Our next bargaining session is our first FULL day next week on Wednesday, August 30th.

A Tentative Agreement on grievance procedure

Having an effective and comprehensive grievance procedure has been a priority since Day 1. After many weeks of negotiating with Admin, we have reached a Tentative Agreement! This is a momentous achievement that ensures our protection and power, and it couldn’t have been completed without valuable testimonies from YOU. Key wins in this article include a 30 day period to file a grievance (one of the highest a grad union has won), clear levels for escalating a grievance, and the right to have a union steward present during all steps. This is a HUGE win to support our time during our graduate career. Now, we need to continue to fight for strong nondiscrimination and discipline & discharge articles that our brand new grievance procedure can support!

The weather’s heating up, and so is bargaining

We are exactly 80 days into the bargaining process, and the pace is heating up. We have reached Tentative Agreements on 36% of the language proposals (8 of the 22), and are actively negotiating 50% (11 of the 22). While we continued to pressure the Admin on our union shop proposal, highlighting the unity, inclusion, and equity we envision, we heard crickets in response. However, we finally received counters that address the scope and security of our teaching/research appointments and are amped to continue to fight for clarity and protection! 

International workers deserve rights 

NU Admin countered on international worker rights by gutting our initial proposal. Despite incredibly complex and arduous visa procedures, NU Admin believes “there are sufficient break periods in the year that students can attend to these issues” and won’t offer a mere 5 days of leave for visa appointments and other immigration-related concerns. Accommodations such as remote work for international workers that must remain in their home countries while waiting on immigration documents were also rejected. Our demands are reasonable. Out of the 2310 bargaining unit members based on the list NU provided (NUGW-UE disputes), 1327 are international graduate workers who deserve to work at an institution that respects and alleviates their struggles. Read more about the provisions we proposed and Admin’s response in the bargaining tracker.

Get ACTIVATED

Are you an international grad worker who has had issues with NU? Fill out this anonymous testimony form so we can share YOUR experiences at the bargaining table next week. Also, join CAT in flyering campus (with donuts!) every Wednesday morning at 10am at Tech and the Rock so NU knows we mean business. See you there!

Signed, The NUGW-UE Bargaining Committee: Alejandro Abisambra (Management and Organizations and Sociology), Jade Basinski (Civil and Environmental Engineering), Maddie Brucker (Computer Science & Learning Sciences), Lawrence Chillrud (Electrical and Computer Engineering), Peter Cummings (Clinical Psychology), Adam Goldsmith (Communication Studies), Jack Hamill (Music), Reem Ibrahim (Interdepartmental Neuroscience), Lauren Johnson (English), Cataldo Lamarca (Materials Science and Engineering), Elisabeth Latawiec (Chemistry), Thomas McKenzie-Smith (Physics and Astronomy), Behailu Mihirete (Communication Studies), Ben Oxley (Chemistry), Summer Pappachen (Political Science), Sebastian Poblete (Economics), Andrew Poverman (Physics and Astronomy), Adrian Ray-Avalani (Linguistics), Jakob Reinke (Materials Science and Engineering), Mounica Sreesai (Anthropology), Drew Weidner (Chemical and Biological Engineering), Teke Wiggin (Sociology), Ruoxi Zhu (Electrical and Computer Engineering), Kavi Chintam (Chemical and Biological Engineering), Esther (Em) Kamm (History)