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Frequently
Asked Questions

We are seeking representation for all Masters and PhD students who are currently employed as graduate assistants (including teaching assistants, research assistants and graduate advisors) at the University of Vermont. This includes individuals paid by grants. If you are a working graduate student paid through UVM, we are seeking to represent you!

  • Negotiates for better working conditions, including but not limited to the issues listed below.

  • Protects against discrimination, harassment, and retaliation in the complex graduate school context 

  • Gives us a seat at the table to make the changes we want and need through negotiations with UVM 

  • Solidarity and Community! When you ask “What can a union do for me?” you are asking what you can do for yourself. The union is an organized community of working graduate students joining together to improve our working conditions.

GSU’s demands come directly from our organizing efforts. When you sign a union card you say: 

  • YES to a universal minimum stipend at a living wage

  • YES to vision and dental benefits

  • YES to accessible childcare for working parents

  • YES to enforcing 20-hour TA/RA workload cap

  • YES to a robust grievance procedure 

  • YES to addressing the housing crisis

  • NO to the “comprehensive fee”

Retaliation is against the law and we would not accept any such retaliation or attack from the university, and we would follow in the footsteps of other unions, such as the UVM Staff Union, to fight against retaliation. The best way for us to protect ourselves against retaliation is to be well-organized and show our strength in numbers.

All student employees, regardless of their immigration status, have the right to engage in activities with their co-workers concerning their working conditions, form a union, and collectively bargain with our universities. It is illegal for an employer to retaliate against any student employees for exercising their rights.

Not only will international graduate workers be represented, but unions are a powerful tool to support international graduate students. Many of the ways in which unions benefit all of us are also ways in which they benefit international students, for example, by providing representation and advocacy, collective bargaining, wage increases, better healthcare and benefits, workplace safety, protection from retaliation, legal assistance, educational advocacy, and addressing discrimination. GSU-UAW is prioritizing working graduate student issues in our organizing efforts.

All of us! We vote on all major issues and decisions that we make, including who will represent us at the bargaining table when we win our union election. We will also welcome all working graduate students to attend and take part in negotiations. Any agreement reached with the university will be put to a vote of the entire membership. 

Union dues provide resources such as legal representation. All union members pay dues as a way to provide support to each other. There will be no union dues or fees until we negotiate a collective bargaining agreement that is satisfactory to us. One we vote to approve the contract and it goes into effect, UAW 2322 dues are set at a flat rate of 2% of each paycheck with a one-time initiation fee of $20.

After reviewing and meeting with several affiliate unions, the GSU Organizing Committee voted to affiliate with the UAW. The UAW is an International Union: United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America. UAW is one of the largest and most diverse unions in North America, with members in virtually every sector of the economy. 

The UAW represents over 25,000 graduate employees, more than any other union in the US. UAW affiliated grad employee unions include: UMASS (Amherst, Boston, & Lowell), NYU, the UC system, Columbia, and many others. GSU’s Organizing Committee voted to work with local UAW branch 2322 specifically because UAW 2322 has demonstrated their effectiveness of organizing at other peer universities regionally, including at UMass Amherst and Goddard College. We are specifically excited to work with UAW 2322 because we are gaining a sister union in GEO-UAW 2322 at Umass Amherst, a union with a robust history of member-lead negotiations.

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