Brown University grads secure an agreement on Ivy League’s first graduate union contract

by C.M. Lewis

Source: SUGSE Facebook

Graduate assistants at Brown University announced a tentative agreement with the university administration this morning, setting up the prospect of a groundbreaking moment: a collective bargaining agreement for graduate assistants in the Ivy League.

Graduate assistants at Brown are organized with Stand Up for Graduate Student Employees (SUGSE), affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). They voted in favor of union representation in November of 2018, with 59% of voters supporting unionization. Their vote was part of a wave of union votes in the Ivy League, with graduate assistants at Harvard, Columbia, and a subset of Yale graduate assistants voting in favor of union representation. 

The outcome of those votes has been uncertain. Many Ivy League institutions have led the charge to secure a rule from the Trump-appointed National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) denying graduate assistants the right to organize and collectively bargain under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). But according to Rithika Ramamurthy, co-chair of the SUGSE bargaining team and a doctoral candidate in the Department of English, that didn’t deter graduate unionists.

“The NLRB certainly posed a lot of anxiety and urgency over the process,” according to Rithika. “But I think what it actually did for a lot of members and for our organizers and our members of the bargaining committee is frame our fight[.]” 

Brown has been an outlier among Ivy League universities—it has continued to meet and bargain with the graduate union, and members of the bargaining team say they have felt continual progress toward a settlement. It’s a far cry from past Brown administrations. In 2004, Brown was the epicenter of a Bush-era NLRB decision that stripped graduate assistants of the right to unionize.

But in spite of Brown’s willingness to meet, bargaining hasn’t been easy. Direct action, including a recent car rally at Brown President Christina Paxson’s home, has been necessary to keep up the pressure. The spread of the COVID-19 pandemic posed new challenges; bargaining ceased in March. According to Ramamurthy, when the parties resumed bargaining “the tone was a little bit different,” with Brown raising new economic concerns. In response, Brown graduate assistants raised new proposals addressing the impact of COVID-19 on graduate assistants, including one year contract extensions for doctoral candidates and full coverage for COVID-19 healthcare costs—proposals they won in their tentative agreement.

Provisions of the agreement will have a large impact for Brown graduate assistants. According to Kaitlyn Hajdarovic, co-chair of the bargaining team and a graduate research assistant in Neuroscience, winning an independent grievance procedure and protections against sexual harassment and discrimination will make a difference for research assistants. 

“Laboratory researchers are in this very unique situation where their adviser, the principal investigator for their lab, has massive power over not only how their thesis goes, but their whole career.” That has consequences—according to Hajdarovic, “Traditionally, people are scared to fight back and scared to bring any kind of complaint against their adviser.”

“I’m hoping that with this strong grievance procedure and the power of the union behind it, that people are more comfortable to stand up to abusive [principal investigators] and that we’re able to make sure that all laboratory workers are in safe and healthy working environments, that people don’t have to deal with sexual harassment or race-based discrimination, or any other frankly shitty working conditions.”

Achieving a contract with Brown breaks new ground. If ratified—the union is expected to vote early next week—the contract will be the first collective bargaining agreement between a graduate union and an Ivy League university. Ivy League institutions have led the charge against graduate unionization, appealing to the Trump-appointed National Labor Relations Board to issue a rule against granting graduate assistants organizing rights under the National Labor Relations Act. 

A member institution settling a contract with a graduate union creates pressure for holdouts like Harvard and Columbia to bargain in good faith and reach settlements. In spite of Harvard and Columbia graduate workers winning union elections—Harvard had to have a re-run election because of employer unfair labor practices—bargaining first contracts has been slow progress.

Columbia’s graduate union, GWC-UAW, said that they congratulate SUGSE and hope the tentative agreement encourages Columbia “to engage in good faith bargaining with us moving forward,” and further urged Columbia to “make meaningful changes to their positions at the table in a timely manner.” Columbia and Harvard, as well as HGSU-UAW, did not respond to requests for comment by press time. 

No matter what rule the NLRB finally issues—it is widely expected to decline jurisdiction over graduate assistants, removing one pathway to unionization—graduate unionists can still fight to organize. For Brown graduates, a contract isn’t the end—it’s the start of building their union and fighting for more. Both Hajdarovic and Ramamurthy see work to be done, with Ramamurthy citing current protests and what labor can do as part of the on-going struggle for racial justice. 

For now, graduate assistants will celebrate as they prepare to vote on their first contract. “For a very long time I didn’t think we were going to get this contract,” said Hajdarovic. “We were able to do it  . . .  if we can do this at an Ivy, it can happen anywhere.”

C.M. Lewis is an editor of Strikewave and a union activist in Pennsylvania.