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.
