News and updates from Georgetown Alliance of Graduate Employees
On March 16, 2018, The Presidents of four major unions - The American Federation of Teachers, Service Employees International Union, United Autoworkers, and UNITE Here - signed a letter uniting together around graduate worker unionization efforts across the United States.
When asked what efforts they may look to, AFT President Randi Weingarten “cited Georgetown University’s recent decision to negotiate terms of a graduate student union election outside NLRB channels.”
Today, we take a brief moment of reflection to think critically on the safety of the students that we teach, advise, mentor, and instruct in our labs.
Today, at 10am, Georgetown students walked out of their classes for 17 minutes, raising their voices and demanding change on the one month anniversary of the Parkland tragedy. We have the right to work and teach in an environment free from the worry of being gunned down in our classrooms or on our way home from school.
We stand in full solidarity with our undergraduates across the United States in demanding that this issue is not forgotten, that real change happens, and that this real change comes from uniting together and letting our collective voices be heard.
https://www.facebook.com/N2Sreports/videos/1709904952450720/?fref=mentions
On February 1st, Georgetown expressed its desire to GAGE to come to terms on a private election agreement that would not be controlled by any National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decision regarding graduate students’ employee status under the National Labor Relations Act. This is a major step forward in our negotiations with Georgetown—and it wouldn’t have been possible without all of your hard work.
The Georgetown Voice By: Logan Arkema, Gabriel Berger, Michael DeFelice and Daniel Luis Zager
01/19/2018
On Dec. 4, Georgetown abdicated its core values. We hope the university will change its course.
Last month, Provost Robert Groves didn’t just refuse to recognize the Georgetown Alliance for Graduate Employees (GAGE) as a union representing Georgetown’s graduate workers; he also claimed that the people who teach some of Georgetown’s classes and do Georgetown’s research aren’t even workers. This is unacceptable.
The Hoya by Sarah Mendelsohn — January 19, 2018
Students pursuing university recognition of a graduate teaching assistant labor union will continue activism to persuade administrators to accept their proposal for the right to vote following a university email announcing new willingness to reexamine the issue of unionization.
On January 8th, Provost Robert Groves sent an email stating Georgetown University is willing to negotiate a private election for graduate worker unionization!
We’re excited to see Georgetown re-evaluated their position. This change—from being willing to challenge our legal status as workers to now being willing to negotiate a third party election—is a direct result of our collective actions and our support from faculty, alumni, undergraduates, fellow grad workers, and the Georgetown Community as a whole. Organizing works. From alumni expressing their desire to donate to our campaign rather than to Georgetown, to our coverage in the Washington Post, National Catholic Reporter, Inside Higher Ed, and The Georgetown Voice, public pressure works.
We still have a lot of work to do in order for the University to sign onto this agreement and get our vote, so we plan to keep up the pressure.
We encourage everyone in the Georgetown community who has questions about unionization to talk directly with us. Read our FAQ that was written by fellow grad workers. Come to our office hours, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, or email us at GAGEorganizing@gmail.com.
It's been a busy few weeks since Provost Robert Groves and the Georgetown administration stated that we are not workers, that the hours we put into the classroom, in the laboratory, in hosting office hours and preparing syllabi, are strictly something we would do to further our own education as students, and provides no value to the institution.
Last night the Senate voted to begin debate on its version of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which, unlike the version that the House passed on November 16, preserves the tax-exempt status of graduate workers’ tuition benefits, for now. Observers agree that the Senate will likely vote on the tax bill either tonight or Friday. The Grad Student Tax represents nothing less than an attack on US higher education, and graduate workers everywhere want to ensure that the final version of the tax bill preserves the tax-exempt status of our tuition benefits.
Members of the Georgetown Alliance of Graduate Employees (GAGE) delivered a letter to the office of university President John DeGioia declaring their intention to unionize. The letter was delivered following a rally on Copley Lawn to celebrate reaching majority support for unionization among graduate student employees. The university now has the choice of whether or not to recognize the union and begin negotiating a contract.
During the town hall, members of the Doctoral Students’ Coalition (DSC) presented the findings from their unionization working group. In anticipation of the NLRB ruling last August, the 15 member unionization working group read union contracts of other unionized students, became familiarized with Just Employment Policy, and spoke with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), American Federation of Teachers, and unionized graduate students from other universities.
