Frequently Asked Questions
The Georgetown Alliance of Graduate Employees (GAGE) is a union created and run by graduate student employees. GAGE was formally recognized by the University in 2018 after graduate student employees voted in favor of forming a union. Student employees either join GAGE as a member or elect to pay agency fees as a non-member. We are made up of Masters and PhD graduate workers from across the range of disciplines found at Georgetown University. We span the sciences and the humanities, include both domestic and international workers, and are united to fight for fair and equitable working conditions for all members of the Georgetown community.
A union is an organized group of employees who collectively use their strength to win a greater voice in the workplace. Through a union, workers have the power to improve their wages, benefits, job security, workplace health and safety, professional development and other work-related issues. Learn more about our priority issues.
GAGE was founded by graduate workers, and it will continue to be democratically run by graduate workers. As a group of volunteers, we want everyone to be involved. Your unique perspective and experiences are important in shaping the priorities of GAGE.
We affiliated with American Federation of Teachers (AFT), a national union with a reputation for respecting the independence of its local affiliates, meaning that we value and prioritize our autonomy as an organization. Affiliation with a national union means access to more resources, including legal counsel and organizing assistance.
Our union contract is a legally binding agreement between our union and the Georgetown Administration. Before we had a contract, we had no rights to negotiate over our pay, benefits, or working conditions, and the Administration had full rights to change (even reduce!) our pay and benefits at any time.
After 13 months of negotiations, we won our first contract on May 1, 2020. We raised the minimum stipend for 9-month appointments from $29,000 to $32,500 and the minimum stipend for 12-month appointments from $31,000 to $35,500. For hourly work, we raised the minimum wage from $13.50 per hour to $19.50 per hour. We gained fully covered dental insurance for PhD assistants, and a more affordable dental insurance option for all graduate students. We secured paid leave policies, a grievance procedure, and more.
Our second contract was completed in the Summer of 2023 and won up to 12% pay increases across both Masters and PhD workers, in addition to better parental leave and protections for undocumented workers. See the highlights here.
Dues are the sole source of financial support for our union. GAGE is the only organization for Georgetown grad students that is completely financially independent of Georgetown University. This gives us the freedom to boldly and fearlessly stand up for graduate student needs. Our contract includes compensation and benefits increases that more than offset the cost of dues. For instance, we won increases of 12% - 14.5% for PhD stipends and up to 44.4% for hourly positions.
Full membership dues are 1.75% of pay and it is automatically withdrawn from each paycheck. Non-members pay an agency fee, 1.75% of pay, and it is automatically withdrawn from each paycheck. If a non-member does not authorize the agency fee, they are fined $400 per semester if a PhD worker, and $100 per semester if a Masters worker.
PhD students receiving non-service stipends and Masters students who are not employed by GU do not receive paychecks, and thus do not have dues/fees automatically withdrawn. These grad students are eligible for Associate membership and must set up payment through GAGE. Associate members pay $12 per month to have all the rights of GAGE members.
Dues rates are set in our Union Bylaws.
Through involvement with the Finance Committee and at General Membership Meetings, GAGE members have a say in our union’s budget.
Yes, international graduate students have the same legal right to join a union as US citizens. International graduate students have played a central role in organizing and running unions at more than 60 university campuses across the US.
For decades there have been graduate worker-unions at public universities, including University of Wisconsin, University of Massachusetts, Rutgers, the University of California system, Illinois, the California State University system, University of Michigan, and State University of New York. New York University is one example of a private university with a grad worker union prior to 2016.
After the August 2016 NLRB decision, graduate student-workers at many private universities began the process of unionizing and are currently at various stages in the process. These include Princeton, Brown, Harvard, Columbia, Yale, Brandeis, University of Chicago, Loyola, Maryland, UVA, Cornell, Brown, Indiana, the New School, Penn, Ohio State, Duke, Northwestern, and many others.
Scholars say unionization has no negative effect and perhaps a small positive effect on the relationship between advisors and advisees.
The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) filed an amicus brief in favor of grad unionization in the NLRB case.
The union will never limit the number of hours that you can work at home or in a lab, only in the number of hours you can be compelled to work. There are of course legal limits on maximum weekly work hours set by the federal government.