Graduate Student Union Negotiations

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.

October 11, 2024

The parties met for a fourteenth negotiation session that included a tentative agreement on the issue of Labor Management Committee.  The Union presented a counterproposal on Union Access that continued to demand the University provide detailed information about students, including country of birth/origin, gender, and race, along with a range of other information not found in similar graduate union contract provisions.  The proposal also demanded that graduate students attend a mandatory 45-minute Union orientation meeting each semester, and that all college or department orientations set aside at least 20 minutes for a Union presentation.  The Union then presented a counterproposal on Training that required, among other things, the University bargain with the Union each semester over all required graduate student training.  The parties also discussed the Union’s proposal on Assignments that demanded colleges adopt TA and RA appointment procedures that incorporate a list of criteria faculty must use in making appointments, as well as mandatory meetings of faculty, department chairs and students to discuss all TA and RA appointment procedures prior to implementation or change.  The parties talked about the Union’s Job Postings proposal and had a productive discussion on the subject of Workload.  The University presented counterproposals on Grievance and Arbitration, as well as Prohibition Against Discrimination and Harassment, and forwarded a counterproposal on Employment Records following the meeting.  The University offered to meet with the Union in a small group off-the-record setting to brainstorm issues between bargaining sessions and advance the dialogue.