News and updates from Georgetown Alliance of Graduate Employees
GAGE ratified our contract with 99% approval! Some highlights are:
$38,000 for workers on a 9-month PhD, stipend plus a summer supplement of $1,100
$41,420 for workers on a 12-month PhD stipend
$22/hour rates for hourly workers
2.5% annual raises for PhD workers and 3% annual raises for hourly workers
Improved protections for undocumented workers
Better processing times for workers with visas
And more!
Today GAGE’s bargaining team reached a tentative agreement on our second contract with Georgetown. We are thrilled that this 11-month process has come to an end and that graduate employees at Georgetown will be receiving their raises by September. Some highlights of the contract are:
A 12% initial increase in pay
2.5% raises each year of the contract (our first contract had 2% raises)
Increased parental leave
More protections and support for undocumented workers
Better visa support for international workers
Stay tuned for more updates!
We are pleased to announce that our Emergency Assistance Fund is now open and accepting applications! If you have questions, please email vicepresident@wearegage.org. You can apply here.
Due to the volume of need, we have run out of funds in our Emergency Asssistance Funds. We are therefore no longer accepting applications. If you have questions, please email vicepresident@wearegage.org; otherwise, please consider attending a bargaining session in the next few weeks to express the urgency for these funds to administration. More information about bargaining can be found on our “Bargaining Updates” page.
The Emergency Assistance Fund (EAF) is no longer accepting applications for the 2022/2023 academic year. Please refer to the Mutual Aid Fund (MAF) for additional funding options.
Updated 2/25/2022 at 11:00 am EST
Nominations closed at 11:59 pm EST on Friday February 25th. Late nominations will be accepted only for the Lead Organizer for Graduate Student Assistants Serving in Hourly Positions, which had no nominations at the time of closing. Please email elections@wearegage.org to nominate.
Please find below the list of eligible nomination submissions for Bargaining Team and Executive Council. The Elections Committee will update this post with eligible nominations on a regular basis until the nomination deadline. We emailed nominees on Saturday morning, February 26th, to ask them to accept or decline their nomination.
Beryl Nana Ama Akuffo-Kwapong, Master of Public Policy Program
Nick Gonzalez, Master of Public Policy Program
Charles Davis, Biology PhD program
Brady Thexton, Biology PhD program
Thy Doan Mai Le, Physics PhD program
Wayan Fontaine-Seiler, Physics PhD program
Jack Pruett, Linguistics PhD program
Dominick Cooper, Philosophy PhD program
Chun Hin (Jeffrey) Tsoi, Philosophy PhD program
Brent McDonnell, History PhD program
Daniel Solomon, Government PhD program
Dominick Cooper, Philosophy PhD program
Margaret Weng, Biology PhD program
Mara Helig, Treasurer
Ellen Jacobs, Biology PhD program
Wayan Fontaine-Seiler, Physics PhD program
Vaughn Shirey, Biology PhD program
None
Sidhant Saraogi, Computer Science PhD program
Hannah Fedder Williams, Linguistics PhD program
Theodore Landsman, Government PhD program
Dear GAGE members,
Our form to submit nominations for our Bargaining Team and Executive Council is now open! Nominations are due by 11:59 pm EST on Friday February 25th.
Tomorrow, February 16th at 4 pm EST, we have our virtual information session about our Bargaining Team and our Executive Council. We also have an in-person session on February 22nd at 6:30 pm in Regents 239. RSVP here! Attending an info session is the best way to understand the position duties, nomination and election process, as well as to meet other GAGE members who are also considering serving in these roles.
There are sixteen (16) positions for our Bargaining Team. To encourage representation of different types of grad work experiences, we are designating spots from each of our four (4) categories of graduate workers at Georgetown University: four (4) from Social Sciences degree programs, four (4) from Natural and Biomedical Sciences degree programs, four (4) from Humanities and Languages degree programs, and four (4) from hourly positions. This plan to elect our 2022 - 2023 Bargaining Team was developed by our Bargaining & Research Committee and approved by our current Executive Council in January.
Our 2022 - 2023 Executive Council has nine (9) positions which are described in detail in our GAGE Constitution.
Here’s what you need to know about submitting nominations:
All GAGE members have the right to submit nominations or self nominations.
All GAGE members in good standing are eligible to serve on our Bargaining Team.
All GAGE members in good standing are eligible to serve on our Executive Council and they must have held, hold, or will hold an appointment as a Graduate Student Assistant per our Collective Bargaining Agreement.
A GAGE member may run for both Bargaining Team and Executive Council, and they may serve on both concurrently.
Upon reviewing nominations as they are submitted, the Election Committee will confirm eligibility of the nominee and then ask them to accept or decline candidacy by February 28th.
In solidarity,
GAGE Election Committee
Jewel Tomasula
Zac Park
Matt Ring
PS If you would like to join the Election Committee to oversee the nominations and elections process, please reach out! Per our Bylaws, members of the Election Committee can’t run in the election they are overseeing.
You're invited to our GAGE Leadership Info Sessions to learn about what it's like to be on our Bargaining Team and our Executive Council. At these sessions, we'll outline the election process for these important positions as well.
GAGE will be holding two info sessions:
Zoom info session on Wednesday, February 16 at 4 pm
In-person session on Tuesday, February 22 at 6:30 pm on-campus in Regents 239
We need graduate workers with diverse perspectives to join our Bargaining Team. This team will have the responsibility to meet directly with Georgetown administration representatives to negotiate over PhD stipends, pay rates for hourly positions, health benefits, transportation subsidies, workplace policies, and so many more issues that impact our graduate community.
For our Executive Council, we need graduate workers who will lead organizing for a democratic and inclusive contract campaign. We need grad workers to manage our union's financial resources and to interact with Georgetown administration for implementation of our current contract.
All GAGE members in good standing are eligible to run for Bargaining Team and Executive Council. There's no requirement of prior involvement, and we often find we are stronger with fresh voices and perspectives!
From the wins of our first contract to COVID policies, we've seen over and over that what we accomplish together in GAGE makes a difference in our own lives and the lives of our colleagues. We truly hope you consider taking the step of running for the Bargaining Team or Executive Council.
In solidarity,
GAGE Election Committee
Jewel Tomasula
Zac Park
Matt Ring
PS If you would like to join the Election Committee to oversee the nominations and elections process, please reach out! Per our Bylaws, members of the Election Committee can’t run in the election they are overseeing.
Earlier this week, the University administration announced a COVID-19 vaccine booster requirement for the spring semester. In light of COVID’s persistence and the new Omicron variant, vaccines---including the booster---are necessary to keep graduate workers, our communities, and our families and friends healthy and safe. Last summer, 74 percent of graduate students expressed support for universal COVID-19 vaccine mandates, and we re-affirm that now by supporting the booster requirement. Noting that this announcement comes after the end of the Fall semester classes, we call on the University administration to make this policy as easy as possible to follow by making boosters widely available to all community members in the coming weeks.
We are optimistic that measures such as vaccines and indoor masking and the Washington, DC, area’s low transmission rates will allow us to continue in-person research and teaching safely. We will continue to discuss working conditions with GAGE Department Organizers and watch the situation closely to ensure that graduate workers feel safe at Georgetown. If you have concerns about your health and safety in the classroom, lab, or other workspace, please reach out at organizing@wearegage.org
In Solidarity,
GAGE Executive Council
As we look ahead to the next semester, we are in talks with the university about extending the COVID Side Agreements that we negotiated with Georgetown last spring to protect graduate workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. By extending these side agreements, we ensure that you have access to the rights and protections necessary to complete your work without significant risk of COVID transmission or infection.
Here are a few highlights of the side agreements as we look towards the Spring 2022 semester:
Safe working conditions on campus
If you feel the University is falling short in its enforcement of public health measures on campus, you can use our Union grievance procedure to resolve these issues. Teaching assistants and instructors of record have the right to consult with their supervisor about the conditions in which they are required to conduct in-person classes. In the classroom, they have the right to enforce public health protocols - including the mask requirement - and close class due to non-compliant students.
Equipment for remote teaching
For instructors working remotely, the University will provide technology equipment as a short-term loan to graduate workers or arrange for the purchase of this equipment at no cost to the worker. If you require this technology, please get in touch with us at organizing@wearegage.org so we can help you make the request. Importantly, this is not a reimbursement process and our Emergency Assistance Fund is no longer able to cover technology purchases required for work at Georgetown, so make sure to pursue this option before making a purchase.
Isolation housing
The University will assist any graduate student who needs isolation or quarantine space due to exposure to COVID-19. If you test positive through the University-mandated COVID-19 testing protocol, you will be automatically connected with a University Care Navigator to receive assistance.
If you think you’ve experienced something in your work that our COVID side agreements might address, you should fill out a workplace issue form or contact your Lead Organizer directly.
GAGE’s 2021 Bargaining Survey is offically open!
Graduate workers at Georgetown are currently working under our first Collective Bargaining Agreement, which went into effect in May 2020 and expires in June 2023. In Fall 2022, we can begin bargaining for our second contract with the Georgetown administration.
What we win through collective bargaining will impact every graduate worker at Georgetown, now and in the future. What we bargain for depends entirely on the experiences and priorities of GAGE members. Your response to the bargaining survey is an important first step for us to identify priorities and develop consensus.
Taking the bargaining survey is your first opportunity to make your voice heard, though it certainly won’t be the last! You can expect that in the spring semester, we will be seeking nominations for our Bargaining Committee and holding town halls about ways we want to improve our graduate experience at Georgetown. There will be plenty of ways for each and every GAGE member to be involved.
Your first step is to share your experiences and priorities by taking our bargaining survey!
Somehow the semester is already approaching a close, but in the midst of everything we held two general membership meetings this week. The first was in person, the seond virtual.
These meetings were an opportunity for GAGE members to meet the executive board, as well as our new staff organizer, Hadiyah, and for the executive board to share our upcoming strategy on how we plan on winning a strong second contract. If you’re a member and you want to connect with an organizer and be filled in on what you missed, please do not hesitate to reach out to Hadiyah at hchowdhury@wearegage.org!
To sum up, a large part of our strategy depends on folks filling out our bargaining survey, which is now live. The survey takes about 15 minutes to complete and provides information for the bargaining team to draw upon during bargaining sessions. You can complete the survey here!
We are thrilled to announce that we’ve hired a staff organizer! Hadiyah Chowdhury (she/her) has worked as an organizer in the education sector for the last two and a half years. Her first experience with union organizing was as a volunteer with Graduate Labor Organization (GLO), the graduate worker union at Brown University. She has since worked on Higher Education union recognition and contract campaigns in New Mexico and Oregon, and was most recently working with K-12 teachers and staff in Northern Virginia. In her role as GAGE staff organizer, she will support GAGE members in building a progressive and powerful union. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to her at hchowdhury@wearegage.org with any questions, workplace concerns, or if you’re simply looking to talk!
As you are well aware by now, the University administration has implemented COVID-19 vaccine and mask requirements for all Georgetown faculty, staff, and students on campus this fall semester. As the fall semester approaches, we express our support for these requirements. These decisions were influenced by a GAGE survey conducted earlier this summer and communicated to the University administration, in which 74 percent of graduate students expressed support for universal COVID-19 vaccine mandates on Georgetown’s campus and 62 percent expressed support for mask requirements. These public health measures are essential to protect graduate workers from the widespread transmission of the Delta variant across the United States.
We are optimistic that these measures and the Washington, DC, area’s low transmission rates will allow us to resume in-person research and teaching safely this fall. We will continue to discuss working conditions with GAGE Department Organizers and watch the situation closely to ensure that graduate workers feel safe at Georgetown. If you have concerns about your health and safety in the classroom, lab, or other workspace, please reach out at organizing@wearegage.org.
In Solidarity,
GAGE Executive Council
We are excited to begin our search for a staff organizer to support our union! The staff organizer will be an essential part of our efforts to build a strong community of graduate workers ahead of our next contract campaign, and to make GAGE a force for solidarity activism in the DC area.
Position: Staff Organizer
This position supports the Georgetown Alliance of Graduate Employees (GAGE, Local 06440, AFT, AFL-CIO). The Georgetown Alliance of Graduate Employees (GAGE, Local 6440, AFT, AFL-CIO) is the union of graduate teaching assistants, research assistants, and instructors of record at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. We seek an experienced staff organizer to assist our efforts to organize and recruit members, plan campaigns, and build relationships with other labor unions and movement organizations in the Washington, DC area.
About Us
The Georgetown Alliance of Graduate Employees (GAGE) is the labor union for graduate student assistants at Georgetown University. We seek to empower graduate workers and ensure that they have an equal partnership in decisions that shape their future.
We formally affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers in 2017, and in 2018, Georgetown graduate students voted overwhelmingly to unionize.
In May 2020, we signed our first-ever labor contract with Georgetown University, winning significant wage and benefit improvements to help all graduate workers weather the coronavirus, combat the spiraling cost of living in the nation’s capital and provide sorely needed job security in uncertain times.
We are now looking for the right person to help us take the next steps in our journey and continue to make a real difference in the lives of graduate workers at Georgetown.
Contract Term
This is a three-year contract position, with the possibility of renewal. We expect the Staff Organizer will start no later than September 1, 2021.
Reports To:
GAGE President and Vice President
Salary and Benefits
Salary is between $55,000 - 60,000 per year, commensurate with experience, with an annual 2 percent salary increase. The employee will receive pay twice per month. Health benefits include full healthcare, dental, and vision insurance coverage. Leave benefits include 120 hours of paid annual vacation leave and 80 hours of paid annual sick leave.
Location
We offer a flexible working environment, and recognize that candidates may come to this role with a diverse range of health and family circumstances. Although we encourage remote work and flexible schedules---we’re graduate workers, after all!---the Staff Organizer should expect to participate in in-person organizing meetings and events on campus during the academic year.
Responsibilities
The Staff Organizer will be responsible for working with the GAGE Executive Council to coordinate and implement the union’s organizing strategy. These responsibilities include:
Developing and implementing an effective network of Department Organizers at Georgetown;
Working with the President, Vice President, and Lead Organizers to set and implement organizing and membership goals;
Working with the Vice President, Lead Organizers, and Department Organizers to plan advocacy campaigns around labor issues at Georgetown;
Working with the Secretary and Treasurer to track membership dues and participation in organizing actions using the AFT Connect database;
Facilitating GAGE coordination with and participation in organizing coalitions in the Washington, DC area;
Qualifications
At least 3 - 5 years of experience in designing and implementing union grassroots or other community organizing programs, especially among graduate students or other employees at academic institutions;
A demonstrated writing ability and the ability to communicate clear goals and objectives to both members and other organizations;
Experience with tracking membership and organizing participation; experience with the AFT Connect database is a plus;
Working knowledge of Washington, DC-based organizing coalitions is a plus;
Experience using Microsoft Office or Google Drive programs in the context of organizing work, especially Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets;
Ability to work well with groups and individuals with a wide variety of personalities, needs, and occupations;
Working Conditions:
The work will involve a combination of in-person and remote job responsibilities;
The staff organizer should be able to attend meetings and regular organizing sessions on the Georgetown University campus in Washington, DC on a weekly basis;
Although we try to minimize work outside of normal business hours, we are comfortable with a flexible schedule and may ask the staff organizer to be available for occasional weekend events.
GAGE is committed to creating a diverse environment and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. Please contact us at president@wearegage.org (cc: secretary@wearegage.org) if you need assistance or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process.
To apply, please direct a resume, 1-page cover letter, and the names and contact information of three references to: president@wearegage.org (cc: secretary@wearegage.org). Applications are due July 20.
Welcome to the new GAGE Executive Council! For the next calendar year, these Executive Council officers will work to organize and represent graduate student workers, implement our contract and COVID-19 side agreements, and ensure that we have an equal partnership in decisions that shape our future and the future of Georgetown University.
You can read the full description of duties for each Executive Council position and the biographies of each officer on our website: www.wearegage.org/executive-council.
President: Daniel Solomon, Government PhD candidate
“As President, I look forward to deepening our organizing power among hourly Master’s workers, expanding our efforts to educate members about our contract rights, and broadening our organizing and solidarity activism around racial and climate justice issues. These efforts will ensure that we’re well-positioned to demand an ambitious new contract in 2023.”
Vice President: Dominick Cooper, Philosophy PhD student
“I affirm that effective organizing only happens when all grad workers at Georgetown are engaged with one another, within and across departments, and are ready to act in solidarity with one another, to protect and further promote the conditions of our working lives and communities that allow us all to thrive.”
Treasurer: Genevieve Hayman, Philosophy PhD candidate
“I believe that through the collective voice of graduate workers advocating for each other’s safety and security, we can make a tangible impact in the lives of all graduate student workers at Georgetown.”
Secretary: Jeffrey Tsoi, JD/Philosophy PhD student
“My vision for GAGE is to continue defending the rights of graduate workers and students, representing their diverse voice, and building an inclusive space for all. As part of the executive council, I wish to remind international graduate workers and students through my role that we are as much a part of the Georgetown community as local students - no amount of visa restriction should tell you otherwise.”
Grievance Officer: Vaughn Shirey, Biology PhD candidate
“I am excited to leverage the grievance committee to hold the university accountable through actively monitoring university implementation of all contract elements and assist in establishing a network of emotional first aid, mutual aid, and reconciliation resources for workers impacted by contract violation or other workplace issues.”
Lead Organizer for the Natural and Biomedical Sciences: Jeremy Canfield, Physics PhD student
“As Lead Organizer, I view myself not as a leader, but a representative. I seek to serve as a lens to focus the view of labor justice and the spirit of graduate workers at Georgetown into the best organizing possible to achieve a more just, more life-affirming, more fulfilling workplace, Georgetown community, and world.”
Lead Organizer for Graduate Student Assistants Serving in Hourly Positions: Matthew Ring, Data Science for Public Policy Masters student
“We structure our lives around work, but unions like GAGE let us structure work around our lives. My vision for GAGE is of a broad, sustainable coalition of workers that is member-centric, develops a culture of solidarity, and holds Georgetown to its ideal of cura personalis.”
Throughout the pandemic, the University Administration has been inconsistent in its application of new policies, causing uncertainty and displacement for graduate workers whose lives the pandemic has already upended. Instead of accepting unfair policies, you signed petitions, attended rallies, and made phone calls. Together we demonstrated the collective power of our union and now we have a series of COVID-19 side agreements that will provide us with the protections we deserve!
These agreements respond to the challenges that you’ve raised in organizing conversations, testimonies, and survey responses. The agreements give us a way to hold the University Administration accountable for the impact that its policy changes have on our lives and work.
Here are highlights of the COVID-19 rights and protections that we’ve secured:
Guaranteed protections for graduate research assistants currently working on campus, including free parking on campus and help accessing free emergency isolation housing;
University support to TAs and instructors of record who need to purchase new technology to complete their teaching responsibilities; and
In anticipation of hybrid courses, transparent and guaranteed rights for TAs and instructors of record who are assigned to in-person components.
If you think you’ve experienced something in the workplace that these new agreements might address, you should fill out a workplace issue form or contact your Lead Organizer directly.
The agreement is a useful tool, but it’s only as effective as our organizing makes it. We expect that the University is looking to expand in-person teaching and research this summer and into the fall semester, as vaccines become more widely available and—with any luck—the pace of COVID-19’s spread slows. To ensure that we can have full choice over the risks we take as graduate workers, we need a strong union that builds power around the experiences of our members and the actions we take to protect our health, safety, and financial well-being. Continuing to protect the health and livelihoods of graduate workers will require the same impassioned organizing through which we won these agreements.
Amid a seemingly endless stream of bad news and troubling events, we write to share with you some great news. We won our grievance!
The arbitrator affirmed that GAGE has the right to bargain towards a written agreement about the impact of COVID-19 on our working conditions. He determined that the administration at Georgetown violated our contract by unilaterally ending negotiations with GAGE and refusing to sign a written agreement to protect our health, safety, and livelihoods.
Following this victory, we have submitted a new request to the university to bargain over the impact of its COVID-19 policy changes. The pandemic is dragging into its second year, and graduate workers remain at risk of getting COVID-19 and are facing the dramatic consequences of a global recession.
The arbitrator’s decision reflects the hard work that you and our union community have done in the last six months to organize graduate workers and call attention to the shortcomings of the administration’s COVID-19 policies as they impact our lives and livelihoods. To win an agreement that protects graduate workers through the end of the pandemic, we need to make sure the university sees and hears that power!
This decision sets an important example for graduate workers across the United States. Across the country, graduate workers continue to face down administrators who are willing to sacrifice their health and safety for the university’s bottom-line. Let’s work together to ensure that Georgetown isn’t one of them.
GAGE is working on improving mental health care for graduate workers and the broader campus community. With GAGE’s input, CAPS has launched a new community referral database. But there’s more to do! Our contract provides a strong foundation for improving mental health resources for graduate workers at Georgetown. We invite GAGE members to join our new Mental Health Care Team.
New Mental Health Care Resource
CAPS has partnered with The Shrink Space to help students connect with off-campus mental health care providers. It includes providers within Georgetown’s local network as well as a nationwide network of providers who work with graduate students.
Georgetown is providing this new resource directly in response to our contract. Article 28 on Mental Health Care states that Georgetown must provide graduate workers with an up-to-date directory of external mental healthcare providers and mental health navigation services. This semester, GAGE and Georgetown representatives discussed this new resource and other mental health care issues in a meeting of the Labor Management Committee. The Shrink Space resource is in addition to referrals that graduate students can request from CAPS.
Join the Mental Health Care Team of the GAGE Organizers’ Council
We’re forming a new team to work on improving mental healthcare resources. The team will:
Survey GAGE members about their experience with mental health resources and collect feedback on resources on an ongoing basis
Collaborate with other campus groups working on mental health (e.g., GUSA, Black Survivors Coalition)
Track progress on the mental health care goals set in Article 28 of our contract
Join discussions on mental health care in Labor Management Committee meetings (once per semester, or more frequent only if needed)
Interested in joining the team? Get in touch with your Department Organizer or by email!
We’ll be hosting a General Membership Meeting over Zoom on Tuesday, September 29, from 12 to 1.30 PM (EDT).
Members of GAGE have the right to attend and make their voice heard. RSVP links for the membership meeting have been emailed.
The agenda for the meeting on the 29th will cover the following topics:
Our Union’s budget for the coming year.
Arbitration and our campaign for a fair COVID-19 agreement with Georgetown.
Our response to the proposed Department of Homeland Security (DHS) regulation regarding student visa.
Our plans for enforcing our contract, including information about the grievance process and the Emergency Assistance Fund.
For those who want to learn more about how to get involved as a department organizer (DO) or our work on racial equity and justice, international student rights, or master’s students issues, we have scheduled breakout sessions immediately after the meeting. GAGE members can access a full copy of the agenda for the meeting through a link in their email.
The only voting item on the agenda Tuesday will be whether to approve our budget for the coming year. Like we did with our contract and our constitution and bylaws, voting will occur online through OpaVote. Polls will open at the beginning of the meeting on the 29th, and they will remain open till 5 PM (EDT) on Thursday, October 2. We will be sending an electronic ballot along with copies of the budget and a short presentation from the Finance Committee to every member at their non-GU email address. GAGE members can contact the Elections Committee to verify their non-GU email address at elections@wearegage.org.
I am happy to answer any questions about the agenda for the coming meeting. GAGE members, check your email for the RSVP link.
In solidarity,
Gerald Taylor, Secretary
