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After arriving at Syracuse University in August 2022, second-year sociology graduate student Hayden Courtney met a graduate student and fellow classmate at Recess Coffee in Westcott. The first SU graduate student Courtney met was a part of Syracuse Graduate Employees United, back when it was in its “nascent stages.”

“Some people approached me and they’re like, ‘Hey, are you a grad worker? Oh, did you know that we’re organizing here on campus?’” Courtney, who is also a teaching assistant in social theory, said. “I’m like, ‘I haven’t even been on campus.’”

Over the course of more than two years, Courtney worked behind the scenes along with the rest of SGEU leadership to form an official union for SU’s graduate student workers in April 2023. After SGEU agreed to an inaugural contract with the university on March 19, Courtney said he couldn’t have been more pleased.

“We won the election last year… I had never been so excited. This was a different thing where you see the fruits of your love and labor going into one thing,” said Courtney, a member of SGEU’s bargaining committee. “I think everybody kind of felt that where it’s just like finally, what you’ve been trying to strive for has happened. The thing that is going to make sure that people have better lives here has finally hit.”

Graduate student workers voted 92% in favor of affirming a new collective bargaining agreement with SU after approximately seven months of negotiations. The new agreement includes a median 24% stipend increase for next year, extended health care coverage through SU and improved financial support for international students.

Negotiations between SU and SGEU began in September 2023 after graduate student workers overwhelmingly voted to recognize SGEU as their union in April 2023. SGEU announced both parties reached a tentative agreement on a new contract on March 19.

Sadie Novak, a member of the SGEU bargaining committee, said the collective work of all graduate workers created the opportunities to form a union and finalize the new contract.

Both SU and SGEU strived for “good faith” bargaining throughout the negotiation process, Novak said.

“There were a lot of things happening that I think was motivating both sides,” Novak, who is also a research assistant and teaching assistant in the chemistry department, said. “SGEU wants a fair contract for workers that can go into effect as early as next year, which is what we got, and SU obviously probably wanted to avoid a scenario where we could potentially have gone on strike.”

Novak said compensation and healthcare were the two “biggest sticking points” within the negotiation process.

SGEU members expressed frustration about the stipend SU proposed at a rally on Jan. 16 — the first day of classes for the spring semester. The union later hosted an “urgent hands-all meeting” on March 4 after SU and SGEU reached a “crossroads” in the negotiation process. Three days later, over 100 graduate students held a bargaining rally outside SU’s Office of Human Resources prior to a bargaining session scheduled for March 7.

“I think that was really enough to kind of push the administration in order to be like, ‘Oh, this is real, these folks are really going to do a lot in order to get these wins,’” Courtney said. “I think they started making sessions on their side in order to meet us where we’re at.”

At the time of the March 7 rally, SU offered $27,000 for Ph.D. students and $22,720 for master’s students for the 2024-25 academic year with a minimum 2.5% increase for each academic year up until and including 2028-29. SU’s offer of $27,000 for Ph.D. students and $22,720 for master’s students placed below Syracuse’s living wage of $36,865, according to MIT’s living wage calculator.

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Under the current agreement, Ph.D. academic graduate assistants and master’s academic graduate assistants will receive a minimum stipend of $28,000 and $24,000, respectively, a slight increase from the March 7 offer.

Novak said SGEU shifted away from focusing on compensation to healthcare and the creation of a “Graduate Assistant Healthcare Support Fund.” Every fiscal year, SU will add $50,000 to the fund to reimburse medical expenses to students who “represent demonstrated financial hardship.”

As part of an election agreement between SU and SGEU, Novak said the union could not go on strike between March 1, 2023, and March 1, 2024. During the negotiation process in February 2024, SU asked SGEU to extend its no strike agreement until April 1, Novak said. SU and SGEU both agreed to a “no strike – no lockout” provision as part of the new contract.

On Tuesday, Gretchen Ritter — SU’s vice chancellor, provost and chief academic officer — called the negotiation process “thoughtful, constructive and collaborative” in a written statement released after SGEU ratified the new contract. Similar to Novak, Ritter said in the statement both parties worked in “good faith.”

Sobia Paracha, an SGEU member, Ph.D. student in political science and teaching assistant, said the expanded healthcare in the new agreement — which includes dental and eye care — directly helps her and other international students by reducing the financial burden of healthcare costs.

Ashraful Haque, a first-year Ph.D. student in public administration and international affairs and SGEU member, said most graduate students struggle with affording health insurance but that the new agreement would help to mitigate costs.

“Many (graduate students), like me, don’t select good coverage because it’s very expensive, and with our money that we get, we cannot afford it,” Haque said. “So if SU covers 80% of it, then it will be a big support and we’d be more assured of our health if something happens. Many times, we don’t even see a doctor because we are so afraid of the out of pocket cost.”

Paracha said she was happy SGEU worked to secure a better contract but believes more work still needs to be done.

“The university still treats us as students and not as employees in the sense that the money that we make is below the poverty line for Syracuse. Even with the new agreement, it’s still below that,” Paracha said.

Aysenur Deger, an SGEU member and current Ph.D. student in political science, expressed a similar sentiment and said SU would be more appealing for potential new graduate students if the university offered better pay.

For graduate students who are close to completing their program, it was still important to vote for the agreement for future graduate students, Jooyoung Kim, an economics graduate student and SGEU member, said. For his fellow graduate students, he said voting for the contract guaranteed a minimum living standard.

Courtney said he was “ecstatic and stoked” last spring when the SGEU legitimized itself and became an official union to represent graduate workers. After years of organizing and work, he added it was emotional when both SU and SGEU agreed to the new contract.

“I would never have expected it to go this quickly, to be honest,” Courtney said. “But we were able to think smart, work together and order and mobilize our folks in a meaningful way in order to make this happen in a quick and efficient manner.”

Published on March 27, 2024 at 11:23 pm

Contact Dominic: dcchiapp@syr.edu | @DominicChiappo2