Graduate Student Union Negotiations
Background Information
On July 14, 2023, the National Labor Relations Board ordered that an election take place among graduate students performing instructional and research services to determine if the United Autoworkers Union should represent them in negotiations for a union contract with Northeastern. A request for review of that determination remains pending with the NLRB. In late September, the election resulted in the United Autoworkers Union receiving a majority of votes cast and negotiations over the terms of a graduate union contract have now commenced between the University and the Union.
This webpage will provide periodic updates concerning bargaining, with individual bargaining sessions identified below.
Bargaining History
September 21, 2023
Union election results announced that the United Autoworkers had been elected to represent a bargaining unit of graduate students.
October 23, 2023
Union requested to meet to begin the contract negotiation process. The University offered to meet on November 8, 2023 to begin negotiations.
November 8, 2023
The University arrived with its bargaining team for negotiations. The Union was present with 8 representatives. The University asked if the Union wanted to begin contract negotiations and the Union replied that it did not come to the meeting ready to bargain because it had no bargaining team assembled. It was agreed that the parties would meet again on December 13th for bargaining.
December 13, 2023
The University arrived with its bargaining team for negotiations. The Union was present with its bargaining committee, but offered no proposals for a contract. The Union used the majority of the meeting time discussing PhD desk space in the Khoury College of Computer Sciences. The University asked if the Union had a contract proposal about desk space or any other matter that it wanted to discuss. The Union responded that it had no contract proposals, and requested information about desk space in other colleges. The Union proposed that the parties next meet for bargaining on January 25, 2024.
January 25, 2024
The parties met for what was the second official negotiation session. The Union brought counterproposals on ground rules that had been proposed by the University in December, and after brief discussion with no agreement, the Union presented its first proposals concerning employment records and severability. Following discussion of the Union’s proposals, the University put forward a comprehensive package proposal, representing a complete contract that the University said it was willing to sign immediately, or when the Union was ready.
The University explained that this proposed contract had many of the provisions that are found in other graduate union contracts, including economic increases, time off, holidays and parental leave, as well as funds for medical and dental assistance for stipended PhDs, workplace safety, non-discrimination and anti-retaliation provisions, along with a comprehensive grievance process. The parties then adjourned for the day.
A copy of the University’s proposed union contract can be viewed here.
February 16, 2024
The parties met for their third negotiation session. The University brought counterproposals to changes the Union proposed on ground rules, with no response from the Union. The Union then rejected the University’s proposed union contract and announced its intention to negotiate one provision at a time. The Union then presented three new proposals concerning job postings, successorship and labor/management committee. After some questions from the University about the rationale for the Union proposals, the Union asked that the University respond to the proposals from January 25th. The University said it would respond soon, but if the Union wanted to make progress in bargaining it should focus on the more difficult issues in negotiation that take longer to address than smaller topics such as labor/management committee, severability and job postings.
March 15, 2024
The parties met for their fourth negotiation session and the University offered an updated comprehensive package proposal for a complete contract to the Union’s bargaining team. The updated contract proposal included counterproposals to the Union on the subjects of Employment Records, Job Postings, Labor/Management Committee and Severability. The Union then offered proposals on subcontracting and holidays. The University had already proposed paid holidays for those days identified in the University calendar as holidays, but the Union demanded additional paid days, including each graduate student’s birthday, May Day, Cesar Chavez Day, as well as the lunar new year of each student’s choice.
The Union asked for an update to information responses on several items, and declared that it was unable to advance substantive proposals without a complete information response. The University pointed out that it had responded to a significant number of requests already, with information that included pay rates and health insurance coverage, and asked the Union why it felt unable to make proposals on substantive issues such as PhD stipends, health insurance, co-pay assistance and many other issues the Union had emphasized as important to graduate students during the Union’s organizing campaign. The Union offered no response, other than it felt unable to do so at this time.
A copy of the University’s updated proposed union contract can be viewed here.
April 3, 2024
The parties met for their fifth negotiation session and the University asked if the Union had any response to the contract proposal offered on March 15th. The Union responded that it would not respond to the contract offer, and said that it would raise issues in a piecemeal fashion in the order that it wanted. The Union then asked that the University review the Union’s prior proposals line-by-line during negotiations and review any disagreement. The University explained that the concepts in Union proposals were already reflected in University counter-proposals, and that going through Union proposals line-by-line would slow the negotiation process significantly. The Union responded that it did not care if negotiations took more time, and asked the University to come to the next bargaining session ready to review prior Union proposals one line at a time. The Union also reviewed the status of certain information request responses and the University explained that information had already been provided on several of the responses in the group of requests, and that it had asked the Union for clarification on other requests, and the Union had never replied. The Union said it would go back and again review the University responses to see if it missed information or clarification requests from the University. The Union then advanced proposals on appointments and appointment security toward the end of the negotiation session.
April 25, 2024
The parties met for their sixth negotiation session. The Union began the meeting by raising an issue it had asked about previously concerning funding for PhD students in CSSH who were entering the 6th year of a PhD program, and whose five-year funding had expired. The University explained that it had already responded to the Union about the issue, and suggested that the Union advance a proposal in negotiations on the matter. Continued discussion of the issue, including a caucus, took up over an hour of the bargaining session. The Union briefly advanced new proposals on Employee Assistance Plan access, Travel Funding and VCAP (voluntary UAW political committee contributions). After a brief discussion of the Union’s proposals, the Union said it had nothing further. The University then began discussing the Union’s earlier proposals line-by-line as was requested by the Union during the April 3rd bargaining meeting. After a several minutes, the Union asked if the parties could instead focus on several issues of concern to the Union, rather than discussing the Union proposals in detail. The balance of the bargaining session was then centered on aspects of the Union’s proposals and University counterproposals on Employment Records and Job Postings, along with a discussion about the PhD appointment process. The discussion was productive and cordial and the University stated that it would bring further counterproposals to the next bargaining session.
May 16, 2024
The parties met for their seventh negotiation session and the Union began the meeting asking about the ability of certain PhD students in a department of CSSH to have funding extended into a 6th year. The University directed the Union to two written responses it had sent the Union about the issue, and again suggested that the Union consider advancing a proposal in bargaining about the issue if it was a concern. The University explained that suggesting Union members call the Dean of CSSH about this issue, as the Union had done in an email communication, was subverting the bargaining process and arguably a violation of the duty to bargain under federal labor law. The University said it would examine the funding issue further if the Union had additional information or questions that it wanted to share. The Union then presented proposals on Training, Automation and Intellectual Property. After several questions from the University and some discussion of the proposals, the University advanced counterproposals on Employment Records, Position Postings, Stipended Appointments and Travel. The parties spent the balance of the time in a productive discussion concerning the Union’s proposals and the University’s counterproposals.
May 31, 2024
The parties met for their eighth bargaining session and the University began the conversation with a counterproposal on Training and Travel that supplemented its initial Training proposal from January 25th. The University’s new language proposed, among other things, time off and funding for graduate students taking professional licensing exams related to their TA or RA work, counting training time as “work hours” under the contract, and a process for timely reimbursement process for students engaged in travel related to their appointments. The Union then offered proposals on Union Security (requiring graduate students to pay union dues or fees), Union Access and Rights (requiring, among other things, a mandatory union-run orientation for all new graduate students), Recognition (including graduate students on a Fellowship among the unionized group), and Professional Development. The University asked why the Union was insisting that students on a Fellowship be part of the bargaining unit, particularly given that the Union told the National Labor Relations Board that Fellows should not be in the represented group, and the Union said it changed its mind. The University reminded the Union that had no basis now to insist that Fellowship students be included in the bargaining unit. The parties discussed the Union’s proposals, and Union counterproposals on Severability, Labor Management Committee, Employment Records, Successorship, Automation, and Intellectual Property before breaking for the day.
June 18, 2024
The parties met for their ninth bargaining session and the Union began by presenting proposals concerning Titles and Classifications, Discipline and Dismissal, and Grievance/Arbitration. The University asked if the Union had rejected the University’s proposal on Grievance/Arbitration and the Union indicated that its language was a counterproposal. After brief discussion about the Union’s proposals, the University presented counterproposals on Employment Records, Labor Management Committee and Severability. After some discussion, the Union requested a caucus to further discuss the University counters. The Union reconvened negotiations after forty-five minutes and the remaining fifteen minutes were spent discussing the University counterproposals. The University also again proposed language increasing graduate student stipends and hourly rates, which it had advanced in negotiations in January and March with no response from the Union. The University also offered a counterproposal on Recognition, and warned the Union that any insistence on Recognition language the Union had proposed was unlawful. The University also again offered a proposal on Academic and Management Rights, reflecting its proposal from January and March that the Union had ignored.
July 16, 2024
The parties met for their tenth bargaining session and the Union began by presenting proposals concerning Paid Leaves, Family Benefits, Workload and Parking/Transit, with counterproposals on Training and Travel. The Union proposals demanded, by way of example, unlimited sick and personal time, paid leave to mourn the death of a pet, the right to bring children to work (class and labs), free parking and allocation of 20% of all parking spaces for graduate students, unlimited travel expenses and paid time off for any conferences students wish to attend, and the right to arbitrate workloads (including academic workloads) students consider to be unreasonable. The University brought counterproposals on Union Rights, Bargaining Unit Information and Union Security, and proposed language on No Strike No Lockout. The University included language addressing a range of union concerns in its counters, and rejected the Union’s demand on several issues, including demands for a 2-hour mandatory union orientation for new PhD students at the start of the fall and spring semesters, a 45-minute union presentation at all PhD orientations, a 24-hour accessible union office with free union parking, and mandatory union fees for graduate students. The parties discussed issues raised in their respective proposals and the bargaining meeting extended beyond the allotted time to allow for additional discussion and questions. At the end of the meeting, the University demanded that the Union bring forward a comprehensive economic proposal, rather than raising issues in a piecemeal fashion. The Union responded that it was unable to do so because it was waiting for information from the University on healthcare utilization. Upon review of Union information requests following negotiations, the University wrote to the Union to clarify that, in fact, the Union had never requested healthcare utilization information, and to renew its call for no further delays in presentation of the Union’s economic proposals.
August 2, 2024
The parties met for their eleventh bargaining session and the Union presented proposals on Retirement Benefits, Tax Assistance stipend, Relocation stipend, Childcare stipend, Vacations, Tuition and Fees, Past Practice, Artificial Intelligence, and a counterproposal on Job Postings. The Union’s demands included retirement benefits for all graduate students, an annual $600 tax preparation stipend, a $6,000 relocation stipend, an annual $5,000 childcare stipend ($8,500 for 2 children and another $5,000 per child with a “socioemotional or physical disability”), and 21 days of annual paid vacation for all graduate students regardless of hours worked. When asked how it determined that graduate students should get 21 days of paid vacation, the Union team responded that number seemed reasonable. The University expressed difficulty understanding how graduate students who are expected to perform no more than 20 hours/week as a TA or RA (essentially part-time), would be entitled to three weeks of paid vacation, particularly where 21 days of vacation was unusual for most full-time jobs under 5 years of service. The Union responded that PhDs are full-time employees because they spend many hours studying. When asked about the basis for the $6,000 relocation stipend, the Union responded that moving to attend graduate school is expensive, as is rent. When asked if this was a rent subsidy proposal, the Union responded that it was not, and that they intended to present a proposal related to rent subsidies at some point. The University also raised a concern about the Union’s Workload proposal, which as written allowed graduate students to arbitrate whether academic assignments are unreasonable. The University expressed that there was likely a path to agreement on some core workload concepts, but the idea that students can arbitrate academic assignments is unacceptable. The University also presented counterproposals on Classifications (TA, RA, Hourly), Grievance and Arbitration, Discipline and Discharge, Training and Professional Development and Labor Management Committee.
August 26, 2024
The parties met for their twelfth bargaining session and the Union presented what it said were most of its economic proposals, with one or two more yet to be provided. The sudden reveal of 9 new Union proposals as graduate students were returning for fall semester was in sharp contrast to the first eleven bargaining sessions where the Union presented only 3.2 new proposals per meeting.
Several of the Union’s proposals, while new, represented counters to proposals presented by the University seven months ago in January, including Compensation, Healthcare, Health and Safety and Anti-Discrimination and Harassment. The Union demands included a minimum $60,000 annual stipend and minimum hourly rate of $58, health, dental and vision coverage for students, domestic partners and children with subsidized co-pays and no premiums, arbitration of Title IX claims, and Union oversight of health and safety issues for graduate students. The Union admitted that its $60,000 stipend number was based upon an MIT wage calculator that produced cost of living estimates for full-time employees who work 40 hours per week in the Boston area. The University pointed out that stipended PhDs are limited to 20 hours of work per week, which meant the minimum Northeastern PhD stipend of $40,000 was far above the $30,000 MIT calculator equivalent for 20 hours, and worth $82,000 annually based on a 40-hour week. The Union also proposed contract provisions concerning Financial Emergencies, Graduate Housing, Food Security, and Accommodations, which included exempting unionized graduate students from the need to provide medical information in support of any accommodation request.
The University attempted to engage the Union with questions to understand the different proposals and the Union repeatedly stated it preferred to defer questions for another discussion to allow it enough time to finish its presentations. After more than two hours, the parties took a 15-minute caucus break, after which the University presented counterproposals on Vacation and Personal Time, Sick Leave, Parking and Transit, No Past Practice and Holidays. The University’s Holiday proposal again offered all the University calendar holidays as paid for stipended graduate students (currently 11 days plus the winter break), and disagreed that unionized graduate students should also receive paid holidays for, among other things, their birthday, May Day, Cesar Chavez Day, and the lunar new year of their choice.
The University engaged the Union in a discussion about the Union’s proposal that students be able to arbitrate academic workloads, which is based in the Union’s insistence that academics (e.g. dissertation research) counts as “work” under the contract. The University explained that the Union’s definition of “work” is at odds with state and federal labor and employment law, as well as the NLRB’s decision that ordered an election at Northeastern. After some discussion, the University asked the Union to further consider its definition of “work” to allow the parties a path toward reaching agreement on graduate student workload.
September 19, 2024
The parties met for their thirteenth negotiation session, and it was a productive discussion that resulted in the first tentative agreement on the issue of Severability. The Union brought forth the remainder of its contract proposals, the first of which (Union Stewards and Officers) demanded that graduate students serving Union officers receive a three-year extension of their PhD funding commitment from the University to support their Union role. The proposal also called for the full funding (with tuition waiver) of three PhD students to perform union activities instead of teaching or research during the year. The Union proposal on Professional and Academic Freedom outlined the expectation that graduate student academic freedom includes the discretion over the contents and presentation of their teaching or research, as well as “inalienable rights” to speak or write free from institutional censorship or discipline. The University presented counterproposals, including language addressing bereavement, medical, military and jury/court appearance leave, as well as language providing leave for international students to address visa renewal related to family travel or other approved reasons. The University also offered counterproposals on Health and Safety, Workspace and Materials as well as Labor Management Committee. The Union presented counterproposals on Employment Records and Appointments and Reappointments.