Graduate student employee unionization, or academic student employee unionization, refers to labor unions that represent students who are employed by their college or university to teach classes, conduct research and perform clerical duties.
When I was a graduate student at Indiana University Bloomington from 2017-2021, my annual stipend was around 15,500 over the course of 4 years (not including the summer months). The stipend didn’t change during my time at IU Bloomington. The pressure from the graduate student union raised the stipend moderately a year after I left. I feel that need to help those who are in the before or current stage of their PhD. PhDs need financial security to better help the students they support.
Graduate Student Unions List
Boston University Grad Workers
Boston University Grad Workers are 3,000 graduate workers whose labor makes Boston University function. They research, teach undergrads and grads, serve on committees, grade exams, supervise dorm living, and perform other essential functions for BU.
Clark University Graduate Student Union
Clark University Graduate Workers United (CUGWU) – Teamsters, a group of
graduate student workers from across the university taking action together for better pay, safer working conditions, and respect for our rights as workers.
Indiana Graduate Workers Coalition
The Graduate Student Coalition is a multidisciplinary group of graduate workers fighting for better working conditions for graduate student workers at IU Bloomington.
Northwestern University Graduate Student Union
NUGW-UE is an antiracist, feminist labor union fighting for better working and living conditions for all graduate workers.
The UC Student-Workers Union represents over 19,000 student workers: teaching assistants, tutors, readers at the University of California.
From running complex experiments in biology labs to teaching daily language courses, we are crucial to the university’s mission of performing cutting-edge research and providing undergraduates with a world-class education.
Vanderbilt Graduate Workers United
Vanderbilt Graduate Workers United (VGWU) is an independent organization dedicated to forming a labor union for graduate workers at Vanderbilt University. Our mission is to build a union that includes all Vanderbilt graduate workers, whether you work in STEM, humanities, Peabody, or social sciences.
WSU Academic Student Employees
WSU Academic Student Employees who are forming a union with the goal of improving the working conditions and experience of teaching and research at WSU.
Temple University Graduate Union
The labor union for TA/RAs at Temple in Philly.
Working to make a better WPI for all graduate students.
The main goal of our group is to regain and protect UMassD graduate students’ rights to sustainable living conditions amidst rising prices of basic commodities and social services.
We are fighting for a UC where first-generation scholars do not have to go into extreme debt so that highly-paid administrators can live in publicly-funded mansions. We are fighting for a UC in which workers are free from harassment and discrimination and earn enough money to live without excessive rent burden.
University of Chicago Graduate Student Union
Grad workers organizing for better working conditions at UChicago since 2007.
Special Mentions – Professors & Adjuncts
New York University Graduate Union
The union for full-time continuing contract faculty at NYU.