Updated: Oct. 4, 2024, at 12:35 p.m.
A group of graduate students held an event on Tuesday at G Street Park to publicly launch their effort to form a union.
The GWU Graduate Student Workers United held the event, which was attended by over 100 students and other members of the GW community and featured over eight speakers, including graduate and undergraduate students, faculty, other union leaders and community members. Cameron Murdock, a doctoral student in the political science department and the media liaison for GWU2, said the event was the formal kickoff to an initiative that has been working to organize graduate students over the past two years in hopes of forming a union at the University.
Murdock said the initiative was started two years ago by a group of doctoral students from the political science, American studies, anthropology and other humanities and social science departments who had noticed issues with low and delayed pay for graduate student workers and wanted to make the situation “better” for future GW graduate students.
“There have been past attempts at GW that kind of didn’t succeed for many reasons but probably the other impetus for this campaign that’s been going on for two years and how many successful unionization campaigns there have been around the country,” Murdock said. “I think there’s been a real change in the momentum for graduate students unions.”
Murdock says the group has had “hundreds” of graduate students sign union authorization cards — a document giving a union the power to represent them in negotiations with their employer — and hopes to hold an election to authorize the union to represent the employees in bargaining “as soon as possible” in order to form the union. She said the group doesn’t have any official demands yet as they are recruiting new members but have noticed common trends among graduate students, including low and delayed pay, problems with health insurance costs, lack of transparency from officials and the need for more support for international students.
David Silverman, a professor of history, said at the event that he had seen the “valuable contributions” doctoral students bring to the University and the struggles they have faced with pay and workload during his time as director of graduate admissions and graduate studies in his department.
“I know that the intellectual life of the University, including the education of the undergraduates, including the research profile of the University, would benefit markedly, if these conditions increase,” Silverman said during his speech. “And I know one more thing, this might be the most important, the University will not address these issues unless graduates organize.”
Suresh Subramaniam, vice provost for graduate and postdoctoral affairs, sent an email last week to graduate students and obtained by The Hatchet that outlines ways the University and the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs have “improved the experience” of graduate students, including new compensation and title policies which entail “standardized” pay rates for graduate teaching assistant across the University, training and events. Many graduate students said the compensation and title policies the department outlined last spring did not go far enough in providing graduate student workers a living wage in the D.C. area.
Maddie House-Tuck, a doctoral student in the American studies department and a member of the group’s organizing committee, said they have received a “broad base” of support from different areas of the University community, like faculty, undergraduates and staff.
“Other folks at GW have been incredibly supportive,” House-Tuck said. “We have support from folks who are faculty, from obviously, undergrads, hospital residents staff, from staff in general.”
The organization has been distributing a community support open letter, obtained by The Hatchet, that includes 121 signatures, from students, alumni, faculty, staff and other community members, as of Oct. 2. The letter is signed by faculty members including Faculty Senator and chair of the Department of Biology Guillermo Orti, American studies department Chair Tom Guglielmo and other faculty members who teach biology, American studies, history, geography, political science, sociology, international affairs, anthropology and writing.
House-Tuck said the public launch was “exciting” as the group looks to expose itself and recruit more graduate students as they look to file for an election.
“This week, we’re gonna have a ton of flyering and a ton of tabling going on all week, just looking to talk to as many graduate workers as possible,” House-Tuck said.
John Lesko, a master’s student in the geography department and a member of the group’s organizing committee, said he got involved in the organization after he was invited to a group retreat last October. He said being part of the group has made him realize that the issues he was facing as a graduate student worker, like pay rates and working hours, were felt by other students.
“Going to the retreat was the first time where I was like, ‘Oh my gosh. This is not a geography or GIS 101 issue. This is a systemic graduate issue of being under-respected, overworked and underpaid for all of the work that we’re doing,’” Lesko said.
Lesko said he hopes the union will fight for higher compensation rates for graduate student workers including a stipend for master’s students similar to the one’s doctoral students receive.
“I would love to see master’s students also receive a stipend for the work that they’re doing, just like the PhD students do,” Lesko said. “There is a pretty big discrepancy between the compensation that a grad or a PhD graduate student makes and a master’s graduate student.”
Elijah Edwards contributed reporting.
This article was updated to correct the following:
House-Tuck said the organization is going to begin flyering, not hiring. We regret this error.
