Graduate student employees overwhelmingly voted to unionize Tuesday and Wednesday after publicly launching unionization efforts last month and unsuccessful attempts to do so among graduate students more than six years ago.

99.4 percent of the 349 graduate assistant workers who participated in the election in the University Student Center voted to unionize through the GWU Graduate Workers United, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union Local 500, according to their Instagram. Graduate workers involved in the union said the election is “monumental” for graduate assistants as they look to improve the pay and benefits for their roles at the University.

Provost Chris Bracey and Suresh Subramaniam, the vice provost for graduate and postdoctoral affairs, sent an email to graduate assistants Thursday informing the workers that a majority of voters favored unionization. The officials said that they have made their commitment to supporting graduate assistants “clear” as the employees contribute to the University’s academic mission.

“We will continue to work diligently with you to ensure that you have a meaningful and successful graduate experience at GW, and we look forward to your continued contributions to our scholarly community,” Bracey and Subramaniam said in the email.

More than 100 students and community members attended an event held by the union last month to officially launch efforts to form a union, which they said had been in the works for two years.

University spokesperson Julia Metjian said the University will work “diligently” with graduate students to make sure they have a meaningful and successful graduate experience at the University.

“We look forward to their continued contributions to our scholarly community,” Metjian said.

Employees can unionize through an election run through the National Labor Relations Board, the method used by GW graduate students or via voluntary recognition by their employer.

Once employees have collected authorization cards — or documents that express support for union representation — from at least 30 percent of employees, the group can file a petition to hold an election. Employees can ask for voluntary recognition once they have cards from a majority of employees, according to the National Labor Relations Act.

If a group goes through the voluntary process, the employer has the right to deny recognition, forcing the employees to either strike for recognition or petition for an election. If a group of employees files for an election, they must receive more than 50 percent of the vote to require the employer to begin bargaining negotiations, according to the National Labor Relations Act.

Leaders in GWU2 said they had “hundreds” of graduate student workers sign authorization cards during their October launch event. SEIU Local 500 filed a petition for an election on behalf of the group on Oct. 7, according to NLRB filings.

Cameron Murdock, a doctoral student in the political science department and the media liaison and a member of the Organizing Committee for GWU2, said the group is looking to increase pay rates, reduce health insurance prices, improve resources for international students and parental leave and implement a year-round UPass program during the bargaining stage.

“The election is super exciting, and it’s a really important step, but bargaining is kind of where we actually figure out what we can get,” Murdock said.

The union election follows a history of unsuccessful unionization efforts among graduate student workers. In September 2017, a group of graduate students began unionization efforts, including collecting authorization cards. In March 2018, then-Provost Forrest Maltzman said the University wouldn’t recognize the group because they had not specified which graduate students they represent, any specific concerns they had or filed a petition with the NLRB. Maltzman said at the time that if the group filed a petition, the University would “fully participate in that process.”

In September 2018, the group paused unionization efforts and began to focus on advocating and lobbying officials on issues salient to graduate students. The group never filed a petition for an election since former President Donald Trump was in office at the time, and the NLRB historically has not granted elections to student labor unions under a Republican administration.

John Lesko, a master’s student in the geography department and a member of the group’s Organizing Committee, said he joined this most recent effort to unionize in November 2023. He said he enjoyed seeing the effort grow from conversations to a movement to a subsequent election victory.

Lesko said the union’s Organizing Committee will present a “leadership plan” to members of the union, and in the coming weeks, GWU2 will have a leadership election to establish positions, like two co-chairs in the group’s executive board who will act as the union’s co-presidents.

He said members will also have the opportunity to nominate themselves to serve on different committees, like a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee and a Bargaining Committee, which will negotiate a new graduate student contract.

“We’re in this phase of besides just the Organizing Committee being in the room, we’re expanding for the process to be more democratic,” Lesko said.

Lesko said he will not be running to join the Bargaining Committee because he is graduating in the spring, but he is encouraging friends to join for graduate students to have a “seat at the table.” Lesko said the majority of students in the union are doctoral candidates.

“Graduate students and master students, they’re different degrees and could have different priorities going into bargaining,” Lesko said.

Lesko said the Organizing Committee spoke with colleagues and called people to try to get them to sign authorization cards and create voting plans to get people to show up and vote. He said he gained a better understanding of what ​​people mean by grassroots organizing through his involvement in the unionization efforts.

“I think we were really successful in that, we had almost 350 folks come out and vote on Tuesday,” Lesko said. “I think our organizing was incredibly successful.”

Maddie House-Tuck, a doctoral student in the American studies department and a member of the group’s Organizing Committee, said she has “pride” in the group for voting to unionize after the time and effort they put in to make the election possible. House-Tuck said October’s public launch event helped the group reach out to graduate workers across the University who they had not reached yet and achieve the support of students, faculty and staff.

“It was really kind of beautiful on Wednesday and Thursday to get to celebrate with people and have that milestone,” House-Tuck said. “Yeah, it feels really joyful in that way.”