Graduate Student Union Resource List

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. Unions make student life better.

What is a Graduate Student Union?

A graduate student union is an organized collective of graduate students within a university or academic institution who have come together to advocate for their rights, interests, and working conditions. These unions typically operate as labor unions and may be affiliated with larger labor organizations or independent entities. Graduate student unions often negotiate with university administrations on issues such as wages, benefits, healthcare, workload, grievance procedures, and other aspects of graduate student life.

Forbes on Graduate Student Unions

Inside Higher Ed on Graduate Student Unions

Why do Adjuncts Need a Union?

Adjunct professors often join unions to collectively advocate for fair pay, job security, benefits, and better working conditions. These unions negotiate on behalf of adjuncts to secure higher wages, longer-term contracts, access to benefits like health insurance and retirement plans, and representation in decision-making processes. By joining together, adjuncts gain collective bargaining power, legal protection, and a voice in addressing the systemic challenges they face in academia, aiming to improve their overall well-being and professional status.

The Cruelty of the Adjunct System

Please email any additional unions to afteryourphd@gmail.com or contact me on LinkedIn.

Unions For Graduate Workers

Name	Type	Description	Social Media
Boston University Grad Workers	Grad Student Union	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.	Twitter
Clark University Graduate Student Union	Grad 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.	Twitter Instagram
Indiana Graduate Workers Coalition	Grad Student Union	The Graduate Student Coalition is a multidisciplinary group of graduate workers fighting for better working conditions for graduate student workers at IU Bloomington.	Twitter Instagram
Northwestern University Graduate Student Union	Grad Student Union	NUGW-UE is an antiracist, feminist labor union fighting for better working and living conditions for all graduate workers.	Twitter Instagram
UC Student-Workers Union	Grad Student Union	The UC Student-Workers Union represents over 19,000 student workers: teaching assistants, tutors, readers at the University of California.
Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation – Oregon	Grad Student Union	The GTFF is an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers and represents graduate students performing instructional, research, and administrative assignments. This bargaining unit has more fluctuations than the others, as graduate students move in and out of the unit frequently depending on the nature of their appointment. The unit normally varies between 1300 and 1500 members.
Yale Graduate Student Union	Grad Student Union	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.	Twitter
Vanderbilt Graduate Workers United	Grad Student Union	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.	Twitter Instagram
WSU Academic Student Employees	Grad Student Union	WSU Academic Student Employees are forming a union with the goal of improving the working conditions and experience of teaching and research at WSU.	Twitter Instagram
Temple University Graduate Union	Grad Student Union	The labor union for TA/RAs at Temple in Philly.	Twitter
WPI Graduate Student Union	Grad Student Union	Working to make a better WPI for all graduate students.	Twitter Instagram
UMass Dartmouth	Grad Student Union	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.	Twitter
UC Merced Academic Workers	Grad Student Union	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.	Twitter Instagram
University of Chicago Graduate Student Union	Grad Student Union	Grad workers organizing for better working conditions at UChicago since 2007.	Twitter Instagram
Grad Students United – University of Florida	Grad Student Union	Graduate assistants at the University of Florida have been unionized since 1972. If you are a teaching assistant or a research assistant at UF, Graduate Assistants United is your voice on campus! Together, we use our collective power to improve the lives of graduate assistants.	Twitter