FAQ

We voted to form a union in Fall 2018. Graduate workers came together to form the union because of low stipends, high fees, healthcare, and other concerns. We bargained our 1st contract from October 2019 to October 2021, and membership ratified the contract in October 2021. We ratified our 2nd contract in Spring 2024. 

GWU represents approximately 450 graduate teaching assistants across 24 departments! 

Below are the things we won by coming together and bargaining our second contract.:

• Immediate Raises: GTAs will receive raises every year for the duration of the contract, starting with a 3% increase in 2025, followed by a 2.5% increase in 2026. Notably, the contract includes “me-too” language to ensure GTAs benefit from any higher wage programs instituted by the university.

• Immediate Pay Increases: Approximately 65-70% of GTAs received an immediate 10% raise, with backpay dating back to August 1, 2023. Higher-paid GTAs received a 3.5% raise with backpay for the same period.

• Enhanced Benefits: The contract introduces university-wide new employee orientations for all GTAs, along with the right to union representation throughout harassment/discrimination complaints processes. Regular meetings between union representatives and management will be held to improve these processes further. 

• Improved Grievance Procedure: Changes to the contractual grievance procedure aim to streamline enforcement and ensure fairness for GTAs. 

• Fee Waivers: GTAs will benefit from significant reductions in student fees. Previously paying 100% of fees, they received a 15% fee waiver in the Spring 2024 semester, 25% waivers in the Fall 2024 and Spring 2025 semesters, and 30% waivers in the subsequent Fall 2025 and Spring 2026 semesters.

Just being in a union triggers certain legal rights that non-union employees simply do not have: the right to be disciplined or fired only for “just cause,” the right to negotiate over any changes in wages and working conditions, and others. Beyond that, the union comes together and bargains for better benefits, such as higher stipends, student fee waivers, healthcare, etc.  The union also resists harmful changes that the employer would otherwise impose. 

International students have the same rights as US citizens to participate in union activity. Visa requirements in no way compromise your right to belong to a union that represents you in a US workplace. It is illegal for ISU to retaliate for protected activity. Thousands of international student workers across the United States have struck and been otherwise active in their unions for more than 40 years.

It is illegal for anyone at ISU to retaliate against you for your union involvement. If you feel you have been retaliated against, please reach out to the GWU reps and we can offer you support to address the situation. But legal protections are even stronger when your support and involvement are known. One of the greatest protections is open union involvement, so that employers can never claim ignorance. The more involved you are, the more protected you are. 

The union provides support. We have legal and labor experts who can advocate for you if you run into an issue on the job. With a grievance procedure, union reps would help you go through the grievance process. But the most powerful and effective resource is the “strength in numbers” of organized coworkers focused on collective well-being. 

Collective bargaining is a process, recognized and protected by state law, that balances the power relationship between employees and their employer. Under collective bargaining, union representatives negotiate on equal footing with ISU and put the terms of our employment into a legally binding contract. Through collective bargaining, graduate employee unions have successfully negotiated improvements in wages, hours, benefits, and terms and conditions of employment. Without collective bargaining, ISU has unilateral power to change our conditions or decide whether or not to make improvements. 

A strike is a coordinated stoppage of work to make an employer meet the needs and demands of workers. In our case, TAs would stop paid work (grading, teaching, and research) across the university. Striking sends a clear message that ISU relies on our labor and that we can no longer continue without a fair and meaningful contract. 

The law protects our right to strike. Since the 1970s, thousands and thousands of TAs across the US have engaged in lawful strike activity without being fired. Beyond these legal protections, mass participation is our best protection since it makes it difficult to single out anyone even if ISU did contemplate such an extreme action. 

Yes, dues allow us to have access to resources that support our union. In the Summer of 2024, dues were lowered to 1.45% of total pay.

This just means that you are giving ISU permission to collect dues directly from your paycheck and send them to the union. This makes it easier than having union members go out to collect dues ourselves. 

SEIU Local 73 represents more than 29,000 workers, primarily in public service and publicly funded positions in school districts, municipalities, social service agencies, and many other job classifications in Illinois and Indiana. By joining SEIU 73, the ISU Graduate Workers Union gets access to great resources and advisors with decades of experience in labor relations. 

Graduate Workers can get involved in the GWU in a number of ways. We are looking for people who are eager to use their writing, speaking, editing, graphic and website design, negotiation, outreach, data collecting, social media, and critical thinking skills to help us in our fight for a better living wage. We also have ongoing projects where we ask our community to use their voice and agency to express their concerns and real struggles they suffer as graduate workers. For more information, check out our GWU Linktree for access to our projects. To be able to vote for a fair contract and have voting power for major decisions, we encourage graduate teaching assistants to sign a membership card and become a member. Send a letter of support to the President and the Board of Trustees. We need more people to let them know to bargain fairly with their most vulnerable population, graduate workers. Remember to follow us on social media at Facebook, Instagram, and Discord.