Graduate Student Unionization

Yes. On March 24, 2023, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) certified the results of a secret ballot election in which a majority of voters cast ballots in favor of union representation by Graduate Students United – United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (GSU-UE).

Yes, the current contract became effective on April 1, 2024, and expires on March 31, 2027. View the contract here.

A bargaining unit consists of similar employees represented collectively by a union, sharing a common interest. The GSU-UE bargaining unit at the University of Chicago includes graduate students enrolled in University of Chicago degree programs who are employed to provide instructional or research services in the College; Divinity School; the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice; Division of the Social Sciences; Division of the Humanities; Division of the Biological Sciences; Division of the Physical Sciences; Booth School of Business; Irving B. Harris School of Public Policy; the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering; and the Law School.

PhD students in the second year of their programs and beyond in the Division of the Biological Sciences, Division of the Physical Sciences, the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, and the Department of Psychology are in the bargaining unit regardless of their title or funding source. All other graduate students are in the bargaining unit only during the time they are employed to provide instructional or research services.

Beginning October 1, 2024, the minimum primary funding pay rate is annualized at $45,000 ($3,750/month).

For Autumn 2024, eligible graduate students can expect to receive their additional payments on the following timeline. Future dates will be published when available.

Graduate students enrolled in a PhD program and who hold a primary funding research or teaching position will receive prorated Transportation, Dental, and Vision payments in the quarter in which they hold the eligible position.

Graduate students enrolled in a PhD program holding a primary funding research or teaching position and whose funding source is classified as W-2 wage will receive a prorated Retirement Planning payment in the quarter in which they hold the eligible position. Primary funding positions that are paid as W-2 Wage include Research Training Assignments (RTA) and Pedagogical Training Assignments (PTA).

Additional payments will be dispersed quarterly on or before the first monthly pay date of each quarter.

Students may check their pay slip in Workday to see if they received the Vision, Dental, and Transportation payment (“STIPEND – VISION DENTAL TR”) or Retirement Planning payment (“STIPEND – RETIREMENT PLAN”).

Incoming international students enrolled in a PhD program on F and J student visas will receive a one-time lump sum payment of $510 during their first quarter of matriculation, typically Autumn 2024.

All enrolled PhD students have their graduate student services fee covered. Master’s students assigned to quarter-long Teaching Assistant positions also have their fee covered by the University.

Eligible master’s students in quarter-long teaching assistantships will have financial aid for the graduate student services fee directly applied to their accounts by the end of the quarter in which they are teaching.

U-SHIP enrollment is required for all PhD students at the University of Chicago. As such, PhD students are not eligible to waive U-SHIP with comparable coverage. Individual student premiums are paid for PhD students at no cost to them.

PhD students holding primary funding union-eligible positions who elect U-SHIP coverage for their dependents will receive a payment in the amount of 25% of their premium before the end of each quarter of eligibility. Eligible students do not need to take any action in order to receive the payment other than enrolling their dependents in U-SHIP according to U-SHIP policies and timelines. The exact amount of the payment will vary by student depending on their number of enrolled dependents.

Students who receive W-2 wages are eligible to participate in the University’s Supplemental Retirement Program (SRP). The SRP is a voluntary plan under which the student specifies the dollar amount that they wish to contribute by deduction each payment period. There is no deadline by which they must enroll—a student can enroll at any time while they are in an eligible position by logging into Workday and making the changes. Any questions should be directed to benefits@uchicago.edu.

A primary funding research or teaching position is a position that a PhD student holds in fulfillment of an academic or funding requirement. In Workday, the University’s HR system, these primary funding positions include “Research Training Assignment - (RTA),” “Pedagogical Training Assignment (PTA),” or, in the case of BSD, PME, PSD, and Psychology PhD students in Year 2+ who are in the union per the MOU, “Fellowship Stipend - (FS) – 3PFS02” or “PhD External Funding – Union – 3PEF02.”

Students can log into Workday, select the person icon in the upper right-hand corner, and select “View Profile” to see the summary of their position details.

The Union has a legal obligation under the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”) to represent you and other members of the bargaining unit when engaged in bargaining unit work. The Union may need certain information about members of the bargaining unit, including you, so that it may properly represent its bargaining unit members and enforce the collective bargaining agreement, which covers pay and other terms and conditions of employment.

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (“FERPA”) is a federal law which prohibits the University from disclosing certain information from your education records to third-parties—including the Union—unless you consent to such a release or it is otherwise permitted or required by law. In order to avoid any conflict between the Union’s right to access this information and FERPA, you may complete the GSU FERPA Consent Form located on Workday.

If you choose to authorize the release of such information, your authorization will remain in effect for all future union-eligible assignments unless you elect to revoke this authorization by resubmitting this form. You may revoke your authorization at any time by changing your selection from “authorize” to “not authorize” and resubmitting the Authorization Form.

If you choose to not authorize the release of such information, the University will not share your FERPA-protected information with the Union unless otherwise permitted or required by law. You may modify this selection at any time by changing your selection from “not authorize” to “authorize” and resubmitting the Authorization Form.

1. Log into Workday, the University’s HR system.
2. Click “Search” at the top and then type “GSU FERPA Consent Form.” Click on the link that appears.
3. Select the “Complete GSU FERPA Consent Form” link (in blue).
4. A pop-up box will appear. Select “All” and then “GSU FERPA Consent Form” before clicking OK.
5. Make your authorization selection by selecting either “Yes” or “No.”
6. Select “submit.”

No. No graduate student needs to join GSU-UE; every graduate student who is in a covered teaching or research position may choose not to become a member of GSU-UE, for any reason at all. Such graduate students are not required to state why they do not wish to become a member. If a student decides not to become a member of the union, they must still pay an agency fee as set by the union.

Under the terms of the contract, graduate student employees in the bargaining unit are required to pay either membership dues or agency fees. Membership fees are charged to students who join the union; agency fees are charged to students who choose not to join the union. The union is currently charging graduate student employees membership dues in the amount of 1.44% of their pay; the union currently charges graduate student employees the same 1.44% of pay for agency fees. Paying union membership dues or an agency fee is a condition of employment in union positions. Failure to pay dues or agency fees in a timely way will result in termination of the teaching or research assignment. See the NLRB website for additional information.

The union sets its own membership dues and agency fees. The union also decides how to spend revenue obtained from those whom it represents.

If a student has questions about their membership or agency fee options in the union, they should direct those questions to GSU-UE.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 requires unions and employers to accommodate an employee who holds religious objections to joining or financially supporting a union. Any graduate student employee who seeks a reasonable religious accommodation should make such request to GSU-UE and to the University.

The union asks a graduate student employee to sign a card allowing for the University to make automatic payroll deductions from the graduate student employee’s paycheck for dues or agency fees. The University cannot deduct any dues from a graduate student employee’s paycheck until the card is signed. Graduate students may also choose to pay dues directly to the union. Funds collected through payroll deductions are transferred by the University to the union.

Graduate student employees who are sick shall not be unreasonably denied the opportunity to take time away from work without loss of compensation.

Graduate student employees shall use their best efforts to schedule vacation or personal time off during regularly scheduled academic breaks. When a graduate student employee is not able to schedule vacation or personal time off during regularly scheduled academic breaks (e.g., say to attend a wedding or due to a family emergency), they are required to coordinate with their supervisor at least two weeks in advance of the requested time off, or as soon as possible if two weeks’ notice is impractical under the circumstances. Supervisors will not unreasonably deny vacation time requests. What is “reasonable” depends upon the situation. Supervisors should consider the nature of the request and the timing related to a student’s obligations.

It is the shared responsibility of the graduate student employee and the supervisor to schedule and attend such meetings.

Graduate student employees may request to have a union steward present whenever they have an employment-related meeting which may lead to discipline. The supervisor must notify the graduate student employee of the meeting’s purpose in advance. In the event no union steward is immediately available, the supervisor shall wait a reasonable period of time given the circumstances but no longer than two business days. The right to union representation does not extend to meetings exclusively concerning a graduate student employee’s academic progress, performance as a student (including course grades, qualifying papers or exams, candidacy exams, language exams, dissertation prospectus defenses, dissertation defenses, or other academic milestones or matters bearing on progress towards the degree), or misconduct unrelated to the performance of job duties.

Union-eligible open positions must be posted on the UChicagoGRAD Gargoyle job board. An open position is any position that is not assigned as part of a student’s primary funding research or teaching position (that is, if a student is being assigned a position because having that position is a requirement for funding—such as a TAship, a Lectureship, or a non-hourly Research Assistantship required by the program—that position will not be posted; all other positions will be).

The University will send a written notice of assignment at least two weeks before the assignment if possible. If the graduate student employee is assigned as a Graduate Student Lecturer, written notice of the assignment shall be provided at least one month before the assignment begins.