Dear Members,

Yesterday, we got a small preview of just how persuasive our membership’s collective power can be.

Since we began, the elephant in the room has been the fact that UChicago is stalling––and not just since September. In fact, UChicago has been stalling and obstructing GSU’s election victory since 2017. When we won that election, UChicago responded with the spurious claim that TAs and RAs were not workers. During this dark chapter of our institution’s history, the administration was a vanguard for the anti-democratic trend of denying election results by saying that the workers voting should not have voted. What “Stop the Steal” lawyers were saying in November and December 2020, Provosts Diermeier and Nirenberg were saying in court and to the campus community in 2017.

At the session, we told the university’s negotiators that UChicago graduate workers have had enough: mobilizing for a strike is officially on the table. We are not only fed up, but also organized! We’ve had hundreds of conversations with our colleagues since the start of this quarter, all of which have made one thing clear: GSU members are prepared to stand with each other. We are prepared to stand up for ourselves and affirm our dignity. 

University admin immediately responded with their most significant movement to date. It’s not enough—but it shows that they know we mean business.

The university offered to almost fully cover visa fees for international students, one of our biggest economic milestones to date. They conceded to full coverage of vision insurance premiums, raised their offer on dental premiums to 50%, and gave us a starting offer on retirement funding, which just last month they said was impossible.

These concessions make one thing abundantly clear: from here on out, the gains we make in negotiations will depend on the pressure we build through a serious strike threat. These moves were the outcome of worker-led organizing. We told the university that we’re mobilizing, and we got some wins, but the only way we’ll get the administration to move on our most important proposals is to prove to them that grad workers are ready and willing to withhold our labor. We need a strike pledge now.

We should remain invigorated and continue to escalate our efforts because critical issues are still missing from the university’s counter proposals. We must sign a compensation article that rises to industry standards, we must have our medical and childcare expenses covered, and we need an improved teaching structure for all graduate workers, regardless of division. Most significantly, it’s been 11 weeks since the university last gave us a proposal on non-discrimination, which remains an affront on the diversity and inclusion efforts the University claims to prioritize on this campus. Protections against discrimination and a standardized teaching contract is a high-priority for our membership, but the University shows time and again that they are not taking these demands seriously at the table. UChicago needs to do way more than provide minor concessions; they need to make real movement on this contract. 

The university is starting to get the message, so let’s make sure they hear us loud and clear. We will not sign a contract until all of our demands are met, and until everyone in our union is protected. RSVP for our strike pledge GMM on Thursday, February 8, and sign up for one of this week’s strike assessment trainings. Let’s make UChicago realize just how much we’re worth––together!

Signed,

Your Bargaining Committee