Bargaining Updates

Your elected Bargaining Committee is hard at work negotiating for a strong first contract! See our bargaining updates:

2024-07-18: More Stalling Around Economics — Stanford Dragging Feet

Stanford stalls on standard language and delays counterproposal for economics articles. We continues to fight for union shop, real recourse for harassment and discrimination, and fellow inclusion.

Dear Graduate Workers,

At last week’s bargaining session, Stanford continued to stall on discussions. Stanford continues to refuse language that other universities accepted, including on professional rights, language that should have been agreed on months ago.

Additionally, Stanford repeatedly rejects language to ensure union access to department-level orientations, standard-practice language (e.g. MIT, JHU, Northwestern, Chicago) to give new and future workers a heads up about their rights. Stanford claims that orientation events have to be relevant to everyone immediately and that a 30-minute room for the union during orientation is logistically and financially infeasible. Frankly, Stanford’s claims are shameful. First, contrary to Stanford’s lies, the union is relevant to all grad workers, including fellows. Further, nearly all PhD students will at some point be grad workers, even under Stanford’s insultingly narrow definition. Lastly, given 1) the reasonableness of our 30-minute request (orientations are considerably longer), 2) room rents are only Stanford paying itself, and 3) last year departmental orientations only became a problem when the administration intervened to block our participation, these logistical and financial excuses are clearly hoaxes to try and prevent workers from learning about their rights.

Our conversation on orientations was only one of many times we had to firmly clarify that fellows are workers and must be included, despite a number of backhanded dismissals of fellows’ contributions to Stanford’s prestigious research. We know that fellows are employees and their work impacts this institution beyond the degrees they obtain. Over the bargaining discussion, we again pushed Stanford hard on union shop (a crucial contract provision ensuring all graduate workers become members of the union), which Stanford, as usual, continued to deflect in order to minimize our power. As is the case in all their tactics, Stanford seeks to prevent the union from being able to protect graduate workers.

We also continued to demand our right to grieve everything in the contract, including nondiscrimination, which Stanford unconscionably seeks to carve out of the grievance process. Between the orientation concerns and Stanford’s absurd views on nondiscrimination we’re left with the impression that senior leadership seems to have ulterior motives: they know that grad workers on campus are mistreated and they’re scared of outside accountability. They want to keep new workers in the dark about their rights. They want to be completely free of outside accountability when workers are subject to abuse of authority, bullying, or sexual harassment. They want to be able to drag out investigations of racist, antisemitic, or Islamophobic discrimination long enough to deny justice and prevent real accountability. And they seem to keep hoping that the laws protecting trans people from being deadnamed and misgendered changes, so they no longer have to pretend to try and prevent even the most basic forms of disrespect.

Stanford has also begun to delay bargaining on economic articles. Rather than receive any response to our previous week’s proposal, we were told that Stanford would be unable to counter our economics article proposal until a full month from our presentation, wasting precious time that could be spent getting to a contract faster.

We spent a significant portion of the bargaining day responding to Stanford’s questions on the economic articles. Over the course of these questions, Stanford suggested that we not incorporate the Bay Area’s exorbitant cost-of-living into our wage calculation. Are these lawyers and administrators really so well paid and out-of-touch that they truly don’t understand why cost of living matters to our wage? Or are they just feigning incomprehension to eat up our time in bargaining? With the way Stanford’s team has behaved the past 8 months, either option seems possible.

After extensive questioning, we expect a solid economics counterproposal from them within the next few weeks. In the meantime, next week we expect a meaningful response on union security (union shop), nondiscrimination, and union rights.

Come to the Thursday 6pm weekly CAT meeting, RSVP for August 14th General Membership meeting, request access to our union Slack, and come show Stanford we’re ready to fight for our raise, fight for our contract, and fight for our rights!

In solidarity,
Your Bargaining Committee

2024-07-12: Economic bargaining begins and an Inclusive Work Environment tentative agreement!

Economics are finally on the table, check it out HERE. We have reached a tentative agreement on Inclusive Work Environment, check it out HERE.

Dear Graduate Workers,

At our latest bargaining meeting, we gave Stanford our economic demands.

Bargaining Committee members told Stanford what all graduate workers already know: that we are rent-burdened and can barely afford to live on-campus. That our salary does not go far enough in the Bay Area. That standards of living are higher at most peer institutions if we compare pay to cost of living. You can read our proposed articles here, but to summarize, we are demanding:

-A 43.2% raise of the minimum stipend to $72,479 to account for the high cost of Stanford housing and living in the Bay Area and to bring our real wages and standard of living to a level comparable to what graduate workers make at unionized universities around the country
-Annual raises at or above the CPI-U inflation index
-A 6-year funding guarantee, since the average PhD takes 5.7 years
-Decent, safe, and affordable housing at less than 30% of our income, the US Department of Housing definition of affordable housing
-Full coverage of dental, vision, and mental health, basic needs so that we can do our jobs and have a good quality of life
-Full coverage of all graduate worker immigration fees and expenses. It should not cost more to work at Stanford just because of where you’re from

In other news, we reached a tentative agreement on Inclusive Work Environment! This was a harder fight than it should have been as Stanford originally said they didn’t want to address any of these issues in the contract (presumably because our contract will be, you know, enforceable). But despite their reticence, we won commitments from Stanford including:

-Accommodations in research and teaching roles for disabled graduate workers without having to share your medical history with your PI
-Accommodation for religious holidays and practices
-Guarantees of clean lactation space and sufficient time for the expression of breast milk
-Initial guarantees around ensuring nearby gender-neutral bathroom access
-Codification of existing rights to use your preferred name
-Improved confidential reporting mechanisms for name and pronoun misuse

Despite these wins, we have a ways to go. Stanford continues to resist our efforts to make our campus better, not just for grad workers but for everyone. We want to highlight the ongoing contract fight between Stanford and SEIU local 2007, the Stanford service workers’ union. SEIU’s demands mirror SGWU’s: to be treated with respect and to be paid fairly. Stanford’s playbook with SEIU has also been the same: delay, deny, distract, divide, and prevent workers from having their voices heard and their needs met. Stanford has been highly resistant to collaboration between SGWU and SEIU: they rejected our offer to observe each others’ bargaining, and this week Stanford presented SGWU with contract language denying us the right to refuse to cross a picket line which would prevent our members from showing solidarity with SEIU or any of the other labor unions on campus. We know we are stronger together and Stanford is anxiously trying to suppress the power of united labor on campus.

Stanford graduate workers will not accept a contract that curtails our rights to express solidarity and support other workers. Come to the Thursday 6pm weekly CAT meeting, request access to our union Slack, and come show Stanford we’re ready to fight for our raise, fight for our contract, and fight for our rights!

In solidarity,
Your Bargaining Committee

2024-06-28: Stanford brings too few counters & concessions. Turn up the heat at CAT July 11th!

Stanford moves on menstrual products but admit they expect by default all workers on campus, working, 52 weeks a year. Stanford won’t concede any of its power unless grad workers DEMAND it! Be part of that demand at the campus-wide Contract Action meeting July 11!

Fellow graduate workers,

Wednesday we met with Stanford and presented 6 counterproposals intended to close out our remaining language articles so we can get to negotiating economic terms. Stanford returned five articles and while we reached one Tentative Agreement it wasn’t over anything particularly impactful and Stanford continues to stall on the issues and protections that matter.

This week’s wins: Stanford agreed to give SGWU time at University orientation events, but not at any department-level orientations. Stanford failed to provide a good reason why we can’t have access to department orientations, so we refused to agree to their terms – access to department level orientations is standard in union contracts at other universities around the country. Further, Stanford agreed to add contract language ensuring access to menstrual products in women’s and gender neutral restrooms, representing movement from their previous proposal, which we called out as sexist, transphobic and noncommital.

Stanford still hasn’t moved on nondiscrimination—they are refusing to allow for quick resolutions and for contract protections against bullying and against sexual harassment, discrimination, and assault. This week we returned a strong Nondiscrimination proposal including all these protections and more. We know that graduate workers won’t accept a contract with Stanford’s poison pills: their blatant attempts to carve out loopholes in our grievance procedure and their refusal to address the need for real recourse, especially in cases of discrimination and harassment.

After our May 16 proposal on Workload we told Stanford we needed a quick response because this article would impact our economic proposals. On June 26th (almost 6 weeks later), Stanford returned a counter proposal answering a lingering question that came up earlier in bargaining: Yes, the University really told us that Graduate Workers can be required to work 13 weeks per quarter, for 52 weeks a year, including holidays and University closures, with discipline or even removal from the University as possible penalties. This is obviously, blatantly, both unacceptable and vastly different from the status quo where most work occurs during the academic quarter. We are committed to fighting in our economic package for strong language on leave & vacation time in order to ensure our members are actually able to live their lives on top of research, teaching, and academics, while maintaining flexible work hours and vacation time for those who already have it. In fact, Stanford’s language elsewhere in their proposals requires that Graduate Workers “maintain a significant physical presence on campus” for the duration of their 13 week Appointment, meaning if they get their way we can never go home or travel. Stanford also continued, without justification, to refuse language protecting workers from excessive or abusive hours.

While we are fighting hard at the bargaining table, we also know that none of these issues will be resolved without Stanford feeling the pressure across campus. To put their feet to the heat, join your coworkers at the next Contract Action Team meeting, Thursday July 11 at 6pm in Mitchell. Area Meetings for the summer quarter are being merged with the campus-wide Contract Action Team where we plan socials and rallies and develop strategies to win our contract. Come learn more and take part in the contract fight, as we push back against Stanford’s consistent efforts to undermine our union’s strength through constant delays and exclusions. Join your coworkers fighting to win the strongest protections, salary, and benefits we can get. Our first contract fight is crucial and will set a standard for decades of workers at Stanford. We will only win what thousands of us are organized to take!

Together, we will prevail
Your Bargaining Committee

2024-06-11: Stanford WALKS OUT when confronted with their sexism, transphobia, obstruction

Stanford storms out of the room and refuses to hear two union proposals, further delaying economics. International Grad Worker tentative agreement secures new rights

Graduate Workers,

Yesterday, we secured a major victory by reaching a tentative agreement on international graduate worker rights (details at the end!). However, just after signing the tentative agreement, Stanford deployed a new egregious delay tactic by storming out of the room when we raised concerns about their proposals and refusing to hear our proposals. These antics obstruct progress on our contract and delay economic negotiations.

Stanford Walks Out

Stanford’s refusal to negotiate came after we called them out for continually failing to put allegedly existing practices into our enforceable contract. In particular, Stanford brags about providing free menstrual products, but they refuse to commit to bare-minimum contractual language to provide them in workplace bathrooms even upon request. Their refusal to engage is indicative not only of sexist and transphobic practices, but reflects a broader pattern of one-sided, seemingly regressive bargaining in which they attempt to wait us out in a war of attrition, trying to undermine our ability to protect graduate workers’ rights and benefits.

Beyond this specific issue (for which they failed to come up with any real justification for their continued refusal to engage), this behavior is a symptom of the administration’s lack of care or interest in the needs of graduate workers. Continuing with their obstruction and delay-focused strategy, Stanford made proposals on Nondiscrimination and Union Rights that were insulting and unproductive. Stanford doubled down, arguing that sexual discrimination, harassment, and assault should be entirely addressed by Stanford offices focused on preventing accountability, instead of a union grievance procedure that would provide real recourse. In fact, they expanded the list of practices they feel they should not be subject to a grievance procedure. On Union Rights, Stanford continues to completely ignore our proposal to ensure incoming graduate workers are given proper access to union orientation, informing new workers of their rights and protections under the union.

Stanford’s Nondiscrimination proposal also continues to disrespect trans, non-binary, and gender-non-confirming workers. They failed to recognize a recently settled component of the law: that intentional and repeated deadnaming and misgendering is harassment. Our only conclusion here is that Stanford is hoping the law changes to no longer protect trans workers so that they are able to officially tolerate anti-trans harassment once again.

Additionally, Stanford leaned into their beliefs that graduate worker’s dignity should be at the university’s discretion. Instead of codifying existing practices on allowing graduate workers to choose their own names, Stanford backtracked on their previous proposal that workers should get to choose their last name. Further, Stanford proposed codifying their right to unilaterally end the practice of allowing updated ID cards. Stanford also did not respond to our proposal that they should keep track of where incorrect names are being used. They seem to be more interested in keeping their heads in the sand and hoping not to know about issues so they can claim ignorance when they choose to repeatedly disrespect people.

Frankly, Stanford’s behavior is shockingly far outside the norm for other institutions’ grad union negotiations. Consider MIT’s article on Inclusive Work Environment: https://mitgsu.org/cba/article-11. MIT agreed that deadnaming and misgendering are harassment. Stanford refuses to do so. MIT agreed to amend their policies to increase clarity around these issues. Stanford’s bargaining team claimed that amendments to their policies on any issue is impossible. MIT agreed to update records and IDs with preferred names for free. Stanford refuses to commit to updating records and wants to be able to charge as much as it wants for updated ID cards. MIT committed to a concrete plan on improving menstrual product access across their campus. Stanford refuses to make any commitments.

Stanford’s bargaining team appears to be more interested in protecting a broken, sexist, and transphobic system than addressing the concerns of the graduate workers who keep this institution running. Stanford is well aware that their antics have delayed the negotiation of economic articles. Graduate workers should not have to wait for critically needed substantial increases in compensation and benefits because their employer refuses to make real progress.

International Graduate Workers

Our tentative agreement on International Graduate Workers secures various rights, including increased protections for international grad workers stuck outside of the U.S., unable to obtain work authorization, or needing to attend visa proceedings. For grad workers unable to enter the U.S., Stanford must provide necessary visa and immigration documentation within 5 days. Additionally, Stanford can no longer arbitrarily deny requests for CPT or OPT applications.

These wins for international graduate workers, however, came after a completely unnecessary seven months of Stanford repeatedly claiming that they could not offer the same rights that this article and other universities already provide. We will continue the fight in our economic articles to ensure reimbursement for remission for any visa/immigration fees and free federal and state tax preparation software for international graduate workers; we international graduate workers know we often face additional financial burdens due to our nonresident status and will ensure Stanford commits to providing the financial support we need in this contract.

Next Steps

Working together is the only way to ensure that we win improvements to our working conditions. Come learn more and help with the contract fight by attending our Thursday 6pm meetings in Mitchell B-04. We eagerly await a response at the next bargaining session from Stanford’s team which can seriously address the remaining language articles, and allow for the economic demands to be presented without further delays.

Solidarity,

Your BC

2024-06-04: Stanford Moves on Issues from Last Week’s Update

Tentative agreement on Bargaining Unit Information, some (but not enough) movement on Inclusive Work Environment.

Greetings Graduate Workers:

We are pleased to report that we have reached a tentative agreement on Bargaining Unit Information! Stanford backed away from their previous claims that they are unable to provide lists of incoming workers any earlier than 5 days before the start of the academic year (which would have prevented workers from receiving crucial information about union orientation and union member sign-up), and has now agreed to provide the union with a complete list of worker information 14 days before the start of each quarter. We hope to see Stanford continue these sorts of fruitful negotiations on the other outstanding language articles, so that we can move on to economic articles at the soonest possible opportunity.

Last Friday, in hopes of expediting progress on our Inclusive Work Environment article, we raised grad worker concerns about Stanford’s existing practices around all-gender bathroom access. Stanford has gendered previously all-gender bathrooms with no notice, closed them with no notice, and in some instances locked TAs out of the all-gender bathroom for the building they teach in. These practices make the lives of non-binary, trans, and gender non-conforming grad workers and students more difficult and reflect a lack of care that often pervades Stanford. We also raised concerns about the bargaining team’s refusal to commit to existing practices about allowing grad workers to use their chosen names on IDs and elsewhere.

At the end of the day, Stanford came back and committed in our contract language to work towards ensuring grad workers who request it have access to all-gender bathrooms. However, they did not make any promises about continuing or expanding on existing practices around prioritizing chosen names.

Their bargaining team was happy to discuss allegedly ongoing projects to improve how Stanford’s computer systems handle chosen names, but they continue to insist that it is impossible to commit to these projects being finished on time or being implemented by departments and programs. To reach agreement on this issue, Stanford must set specific timelines to ensure that all grad workers have the right to use their preferred name across the university.

Our disagreement isn’t just about queer workers; it’s about enshrining existing practices that benefit our members in our contract. Without codifying these rights in our contract, Stanford can try to change these working conditions arbitrarily. We are pushing Stanford to commit to existing practices on many issues, not just this one. We hope that they are serious about ensuring their existing policies and practices that benefit grad workers continue and are applied fairly and evenly.

There are several articles that are very close to resolution if Stanford would back away from some unrealistic expectations. Once those are cleared up, we can get economics on the table. There is no reason we cannot get those non-economic articles resolved at our next session on June 11.

Solidarity, Your BC

2024-05-31: Per Diem for all (who want it)! Stanford stalling is beyond what you can imagine!!!

No tentative agreements (TAs) today. Stanford makes no movement in support of international graduate workers. Good News, Stanford established that Grad Workers shall always have the choice to receive per diem for travel reimbursements (lieu of saving receipts!). Let us know if your department does not allow per diem or you have concerns about new policies on building access across campus.

Hello Graduate Workers,

Last week, we had a discussion with Stanford about recent changes regarding building safety and access policies. We discussed maintaining workplace safety and look forward to supporting member’s needs as access policies changes are implemented by departments and the university. If you or your colleagues have any concerns about building access and safety policies please reach out to your BC representative or department organizer.

Stanford Stalling:

Last week, we hoped to reach a tentative agreement on Bargaining Unit Information. However, Stanford continues to unnecessarily prolong bargaining. At issue is Stanford claiming it cannot provide SGWU a list of new/incoming graduate worker names and email addresses as late as 2 weeks before the quarter. This information is crucial to notify everyone about upcoming union orientation events and essential payroll information. Stanford proposed sending us a list 5 days before the start of Autumn quarter which seems intended to make it impossible for new grad workers to learn about their rights during orientation. They claimed

• their computer systems are unable to generate lists in advance;
• that their proposal was better than those in other graduate worker union contracts; and
• that federal privacy laws prevent them from doing better.

These claims are inaccurate. The truth is

• they agreed to provide appointment notifications two weeks in advance, so their computer systems already have the info we need;
• peer institutions such as MIT receive contact info for incoming graduate workers at least 3 weeks before the beginning of their semester; and
• our contract language ensures Stanford complies with federal privacy laws, (regardless, no other institutions have encountered federal privacy law issues).

At the end of the day, we see two of Stanford’s classic bargaining tactics. First, they make a decision that creates difficulty and confusion and then they blame that decision for being unable to resolve an issue. In this case, their attempted exclusion of Fellows from the union makes receiving one list a year unworkable. Second, Stanford cites their bureaucratic decentralization for their inability to do anything. We reject that their bureaucratic incompetence is a legitimate excuse for inaction.

The solution here is simple. Stanford should clean up the mess they made by recognizing that all fellows are graduate workers and should be protected by the union. This will resolve a litany of challenges that Stanford has asserted are insurmountable. Failing that, they can figure out how to look up a list of names and emails from a computer system that already has them.

On the same theme, Stanford again weaponized their own administrative dysfunction to argue that they can’t possibly provide visa paperwork within 5 business days when international graduate workers are trapped abroad due to visa issues.

We hope that Stanford comes to the table this week with confidence in their own staff’s competence, honest analysis of the law, and a base-level awareness of how other universities are handling the same issues. Once they do, we are sure they will recognize that our proposed compromises are generous to them and reasonable. They can and should do better.

Per Diem:

In good news, after multiple rounds of back and forth, Stanford has acknowledged that all of us may elect to receive per diem when requesting travel reimbursement, meaning that instead of saving receipts for individual meal expenses you may request a fixed amount of money per day to cover meals while traveling. Per diem rates simplify the travel reimbursement process. You can find the domestic rates here. They refer to fingate: “Stanford travelers may elect to use the per diem reimbursement method for meals and/or lodging.” Your travel administrator should not prohibit you from making the per diem election. Please let your Area Chair or BC representative know if you are having trouble with getting per diem, and we will get it resolved.

In solidarity, Your Bargaining Committee

2024-05-22: Health and Safety TA'd; need core international worker protection

We’ve reached a tentative agreement on Health and Safety; 98% VOTED YES on our Economic Platform; Get ready to fight for our economic compensation!

Fellow Graduate Workers,

We are excited to announce that nearly 1700 graduate workers voted in our economic ratification election. 98% voted a resounding YES on our economic platform. We will now begin the bargaining process to win an immediate and substantial raise, improved healthcare, and other critical benefits found in our economic platform. All that remains is for Stanford to settle some of the core remaining language issues so we can begin economic negotiations.

We can fight for these wins together, as evidenced by our rally last week at White Plaza. Thanks to all of the grad workers who came out to show Stanford that our membership is ready to activate over key issues that remain on the table. Chants of “Union Shop, Union Power!” could be heard in the bargaining room inside Tresidder. Stanford knows we mean business and we are starting to see real movement at the table.

We have also reached a tentative agreement on our Health and Safety article last week. By building pressure through collective actions like last week’s picket, we have been able to obtain crucial concessions from Stanford on key articles like this one. Our Health and Safety article now ensures that once the contract is ratified, graduate workers will be able to refuse to work in unsafe environments without fear of retaliation. When graduate workers request safety evaluations of their workspaces, the university will have to share what actions it took and which safety expert concluded they were sufficient to ensure safety.

Despite our continued momentum on language articles, there are still significant disagreements that still need to be worked out. Last week we had a sharp exchange with Stanford on International Graduate Workers, fighting back against Stanford’s refusal to move on key aspects including enabling international workers who are temporarily unable to obtain authorization to enter the US to continue working. Without sufficient protection, workers could arbitrarily lose their jobs through no fault of their own. Peer institutions like MIT, University of Chicago, Northwestern University, and Johns Hopkins University have adopted similar protections, showing that Stanford can protect international workers if they want. It’s our job to make sure they do.

After the strong union showing last week at our White Plaza action, the ball is in Stanford’s court; we are expecting them to make serious progress on these issues, and are ready to hold them accountable if they don’t follow through. We know that graduate workers won’t accept delays on negotiating economic terms — fair pay can’t wait!

In solidarity, SGWU Bargaining Committee

2024-05-08: Vote on Economic Articles, making progress on Language

Tentative Agreement on Discipline and Discharge, movement on many fronts, including nondiscrimination, but more is needed. Make sure to vote on our economic proposals!

Dear Graduate Workers,

Stanford finally made significant movement on our nondiscrimination proposal this week by agreeing that we have the right to file grievances over discrimination and harassment on the basis of protected categories that do not fall under Title IX’s jurisdiction. Although this is a significant movement toward real recourse for graduate workers, we are still continuing to fight for major remaining provisions. Stanford’s last proposal fails to give graduate workers the right to raise grievances over cases of sexual harassment and assault, exploitation, and power abuse at the hands of supervisors. Additionally, Stanford acknowledged caste discrimination is prohibited under California law, but they are resistant to codifying caste as a protected category in our contract. Finally, Stanford’s current proposal requires graduate workers to first go through the University’s entire process for reporting discrimination and harassment before accessing union procedures. As the IDEAL survey tells us, graduate workers rarely report or use university procedures because they can be slow, ineffective, and even harmful. We will continue to fight for a prompt timeline for grievances that offer real recourse for addressing discrimination, harassment, and power abuse in all forms.

We are happy to announce we have reached a tentative agreement on our Discipline & Discharge article. This ensures that Graduate Workers cannot be disciplined without just cause and that progressive discipline will be used. This means that you cannot be fired for minor mistakes, and Stanford has committed to refraining from disproportionate discipline or retaliation for errors at work. In other words, the severity of discipline must match the severity of the offense.

In addition to non-discrimination and workload, we saw the first serious movement by Stanford on our Health and Safety and Workload articles, including the right to a safe workplace and a commitment from Stanford that ensures you cannot be forced to work more hours than stated in your appointment letter. We appreciate Stanford’s movement on these articles, but there are still several key points of disagreement that need to be resolved.

Our progress at the bargaining table is contingent upon your participation; when Stanford sees graduate workers taking action, they concede. To keep up this momentum, we need you to take one minute and VOTE on our economic proposals. Check your inbox for “OpaVote Voting Link”, and reach out to stanfordgwu(at)gmail.com if you have not received your ballot, make sure you signed your union card at sgwu.us/card. Strong voter turnout makes the case to Stanford that we need these economic benefits and pay raises ASAP and are willing to fight for them. You can also show Stanford we mean business by attending our picket on May 16. RSVP to stand together and win this contract!

In solidarity, Your BC

2024-04-19: Grievance Procedure TA!

BIG NEWS - We reached a tentative agreement on our independent grievance procedure! We still need to win the right to file grievances over power abuse, harassment and discrimination.

Dear Stanford Graduate Workers:

We’ve reached a tentative agreement on a KEY article in our contract: Grievance Procedure! This article establishes the process for enforcing our contract by allowing graduate workers to file union-backed grievances. We’ve also moved eight other articles closer to the finish line. We’re committed to keeping up this momentum and we hope Stanford will join us in making our upcoming bargaining sessions as productive as this one.

Why is the grievance procedure so important? If you’re treated unfairly, forced to work in unsafe conditions, or feel that any of your rights laid out in our contract are violated, filing a grievance gives you real recourse through a system designed to support graduate workers instead of protecting Stanford’s reputation and bottom line. Our grievance procedure outlines your options for seeking resolution, ensures access to union representation if desired, and provides third-party arbitration as recourse if a resolution isn’t found. Grievances are an essential tool for unions to enforce contracts, so this tentative agreement is a major win!

While our tentative agreement on Grievance Procedure is great progress, there are several important issues that Stanford refuses to budge on. We are still fighting for an enforceable non-discrimination and anti-harassment process, union security, meaningful health and safety protections, and fewer restrictions on CPT and OPT for international workers.

We also released our economic platform last week! To learn more about the economic platform and our fight for our membership, our rights, and our needs, be sure to attend the Spring General Membership Meeting (GMM) on May 1. BC reps will also be available asynchronously to discuss the proposed platform with workers like you. You can find your BC rep here. In the meantime, we are incorporating your feedback to ensure that this platform represents our membership, our rights, and our needs.

Our final update is that we have a newly elected BC rep from Applied Physics, longtime SGWU organizer Chris Gustin! Graduate workers in Humanities and Material Sciences should also look out for information about running and voting in BC elections in the coming weeks.

In solidarity, SGWU BC

2024-04-01: Fighting to grieve discrimination and harassment and Bargaining Committee special elections

We need Stanford to make serious concessions on Grievance Procedure, Discipline and Discharge, Appointment Notification, Non-Discrimination, and Inclusive Work Environment. Also, we will hold elections to fill open Bargaining Committee seats in Applied Physics, Humanities, and Material Sciences.

Dear Stanford Graduate Workers,

Despite two intensive 8-hour bargaining sessions last week, Stanford has not made enough movement for us to reach tentative agreements on Grievance Procedure, Appointment Security, and Discipline/Discharge. These three articles are critically important for our long-term job security because they address how members can file a grievance, ensure we have a job in situations of precarity, and protect us from arbitrary termination or discipline.

The University also returned, for a second time, their proposal on contract language over Non-Discrimination. Once again, it excludes our proposal for workers to have access to an independent arbitrator in cases of discrimination and harassment.

Why is it so important for discrimination and harassment to be covered by our union grievance procedure? In other words, why is Stanford fighting us so hard on this article?

Currently, graduate students only have access to institutional grievance procedures in certain cases, such as sexual or gender-based harassment and discrimination (known as Title IX). As workers, we can also access the University’s employment procedures for investigating other forms of harassment and discrimination (Admin Guide 1.7.4), but there are many reasons why that isn’t enough to protect us in such circumstances.

Here’s why discrimination and harassment should be covered by our union grievance procedure instead:

1. It protects graduate workers by granting recourse to an independent arbitrator, rather than Stanford’s failed process.
2. It guarantees strict timelines: Under Stanford’s Admin Guide, the suggested time just to investigate a complaint would be 90 days. Under our union grievance procedure, it would take 70 days maximum to bring the complaint to an independent arbitrator.
3. It goes beyond Title IX by providing recourse for harassment that isn’t based on sex or gender.
4. It goes beyond protected categories by providing recourse for any and all harassment, bullying, and abuse of power.
5. It prioritizes protection over punishment by obtaining accommodations for grad workers whose ability to work is being impeded by harassment, power abuse,or discrimination.
6. It codifies graduate workers’ right to a union representative in grievance proceedings.
7. It places additional pressure on the University to act when faced with a complaint over harassment or discrimination that may come before an independent arbitrator.

Discrimination and harassment are not a superficial concern that affects a minority of Stanford’s graduate workers. They could affect you at any point in time during your career. That’s why we need the power to file a union-backed grievance over discrimination, power abuse or harassment–at the hands of one’s co-workers, advisors, PIs, or faculty.

We already know that Stanford’s existing procedures can’t and don’t protect us–see Stanford’s own IDEAL campus survey results–and that’s why we need this clause to protect all graduate workers.

We also have a bargaining win to share: Stanford agreed to contract language that prevents your advisor from making you do inappropriate work (e.g., running personal errands)..

Additionally, SGWU will be holding elections to fill Bargaining Committee seats in Applied Physics, Humanities, and Materials Sciences. SGWU members from these departments will be eligible to run and vote. Workers in those departments will be sent an email with more details. We will solicit candidates from the relevant departments between April 1 and April 5. Please indicate your interest in running by April 5. We will begin elections on the following Monday, April 8. The voting period will run until April 12. Further details about this election will be included in future correspondence.

In Solidarity, SGWU BC.

2024-03-08: Small Wins, Big Progress + Int'l Grad Worker's Needs

Let’s keep up the bargaining momentum! We reached a TA (tentative agreement) on appointment postings. In today’s update, we’re putting Stanford in the hot seat over international workers’ rights.

Fellow Grad Workers,

In our last update, we described Stanford’s varied tactics for slowing down bargaining. After publicly holding Stanford accountable, we are finally starting to see greater movement at the table at our last two bargaining sessions. We credit this movement at the table to the FAM, the CAT (Contract Action Team), and the organizational structure and strength that’s grown over the last two months. In light of this momentum with Stanford, we’re pushing for tentative agreements on key articles in the coming sessions, like Grievance Procedure, Discipline and Discharge, and Appointment Notification.

Our first recent win is reaching a tentative agreement (TA) on our Appointment Posting article (Article 17). This agreement requires Stanford to post any open teaching and research assistantships each quarter on a centralized website accessible to all Graduate Workers. While Graduate Workers in a given department may receive priority for these appointments, any worker who meets the requirements for the position can apply.

Our second win is a commitment from Stanford to incorporate progressive discipline into the contract. Progressive discipline means graduate workers 1) have the right to be notified of misconduct or performance issues before they lead to discipline and 2) any punishment taken must match the severity of the offense. Winning progressive discipline is vital for our job security because it protects workers from being fired for minor mistakes such as showing up late to meetings, which could be used as a way to retaliate against workers.

We need to build on this momentum to obtain key concessions for international workers. Of our five core issues, this week Stanford provided a counter-proposal on international workers. But there are still significant disparities between what Stanford is currently offering and what international graduate workers need. Stanford must ensure Bechtel adheres to reasonable and reliable timelines for providing assistance to international graduate workers. This is necessary to protect us from issues like unreasonable delays in obtaining immigration documentation or information. Moreover, Stanford cut our proposal for all international graduate workers to have equitable access to CPT (Curricular Practical Training) and OPT (Optional Practical Training). If your experiences with Bechtel or your department have affected your work and life at Stanford, let us know here.

In Solidarity,

Your BC

2024-02-15: Stanford returns toothless articles; SGWU files labor charge

Stanford refuses to move on many key issues and has shown that they do not want us to have an enforceable contract. They have even tried to obstruct our ability to communicate with our members via departmental email listservs. We have now filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board.

Dear Fellow Workers,

This past week we met with Stanford’s administration again. We want every graduate worker to know how our employer bargains.

How Stanford negotiates: Throughout the bargaining process, Stanford has employed numerous tactics to slow down the bargaining process and undermine our negotiating position. These include:

1. making counter proposals without any material changes,
2. refusing to negotiate on essential issues like nondiscrimination, and
3. using deliberately vague language in their proposals to prevent us from enforcing the terms of these articles in our future contract.

Stanford’s tactics conceal their real purpose: to pressure us into signing a contract that cannot be enforced when our rights are violated. For instance, on Thursday we finally received a response to our proposal for an inclusive work environment, three and a half months after we first proposed it. In it, Stanford cut a provision protecting queer and trans workers’ right to use preferred names and pronouns at work. Stanford’s watered-down counter also puts the onus on grad workers to navigate the university’s bureaucracy to obtain accommodations they need to work.

These tactics are clear from their health and safety proposal. Let’s compare:

SGWU: The University shall provide a safe workplace and proactively ensure Graduate Workers’ health and safety when they are engaged in activity related to their work responsibilities.

Stanford: The University and the Union share a commitment to maintaining a healthy and safe work environment and ensuring that Graduate Workers have a safe and healthy workplace consistent with applicable law.

Notice a difference? Stanford systematically tries to change our language from one of obligation to one of recommendation, turning a legally-binding contract meant to protect our rights as workers into a trivial set of suggestions. This bargaining tactic characterized all eleven articles they returned last week (see Bargaining Tracker).

We filed an unfair labor practice charge against Stanford. The bad faith tactics don’t stop there. For months, Stanford has been arbitrarily applying standards about what messages can be shared to departmental listservs. While some SGWU organizers have no problem advertising area meetings and rallies, others have had their messages blocked and informed that listservs can be used for “department business” only. Yet these same departments continue to approve non-union messages that are neither academic nor department business on their listservs.

This arbitrary and discriminatory application of university policy is unambiguously illegal.

Despite weeks of trying to reach an amicable resolution at the bargaining table and abundant documentation of Stanford’s efforts to block union communication, Stanford refused to admit wrongdoing or pledge to discontinue this practice. We have now filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to hold Stanford accountable and ensure they cannot unilaterally create, alter, and selectively enforce university policy to prevent you from being informed about your union.

At the FAM, more than 200+ workers mobilized to kick off a new phase of organizing. Join the fight to ensure we have a contract with clear, concrete protections. By attending area meetings, you can stay on top of the bargaining process and help coordinate actions to escalate pressure on Stanford. Stay tuned for more!

2024-02-02: We Can Win - Together!

Stanford now willing to discuss inclusive workplace guarantees, EH&S administrator agrees with us on health and safety. We need you at the FAM to get Stanford to speed up negotiations - RSVP below!

Thanks to your continued pressure, we have several bargaining wins to report from our 02/02/2024 session. Stanford initially refused to return our article on an inclusive workplace, meant to guarantee workplace disability accommodations and key protections for grad workers. However, Stanford has now indicated they are willing to negotiate on these issues! We hope they will follow through and have an article for us to review at the next bargaining session. Though there’s still a long way to go, it’s clear that applying pressure to Stanford is leading to meaningful progress at the table.

Following pushback from the union on Stanford’s refusal to take our health and safety proposals seriously, they responded by bringing in an EH&S administrator on Friday. Under close questioning from the union bargaining committee, the expert ended up affirming the need for strong health and safety protections like the ones we’re fighting for in our contract. We are pleased that Stanford Environmental Health & Safety SHARES OUR VIEW that the bare minimum legal requirements for health and safety are not enough to protect workers.

So far, Stanford’s strategy has been to waste time and money (their lawyer isn’t cheap) rather than critically engage with our proposals. There’s still a huge number of language issues open. Despite repeated requests, Stanford continues to claim that they can’t tell us Bechtel’s response rate to student complaints. International grad workers know the truth about Bechtel’s inefficiency. If you have specific concerns related to international grad worker experience, we invite you to share your story with us and let Stanford know what’s on the line for you. We are ready to keep pushing and Stanford seems more willing to play ball as of late. Let’s press Stanford together!

We gave them responses on ELEVEN articles on Feb 02 and we’re waiting for their response. We need pressure from the general membership to sway Stanford to make important concessions on these articles at the next meeting. Come to the FAM this Wednesday (RSVP for more details)!

In Solidarity,

Your BC

2024-01-22: We Need You!

RSVP here for our University-wide February Action Meeting Wednesday, Feb 7th at 6pm

Fellow Grad Workers,

Your Bargaining Committee continues to fight for your interests in our contract negotiations with the University. We shared your stories about Stanford’s failure to protect you from workplace safety accidents, discrimination, and harassment. In response to the evidence we presented of severe workplace accidents occurring at Stanford research labs, Stanford alternated between silence and shameful admissions of ignorance. They don’t want to bear the responsibility of ensuring lab safety: they want the burden to be all on you.

Members of the BC also presented on discrimination and harassment at Stanford. The presentation contained powerful testimonies from grad workers supported by findings from Stanford’s own IDEAL survey, and explained the importance of workers having access to the union’s grievance procedure in cases of harassment and discrimination. Their response after we asked if current anti-discrimination procedures are helping victims? “We don’t track that.” Convincing the administration that the systems in place are not sufficient protections for our workers is an ongoing battle. We know that trying to report discrimination or harassment at Stanford can be traumatizing and inconclusive, especially when the abuse comes from a figure of authority like your advisor, and we are committed to ensuring workers’ access to the union’s grievance procedure, which includes a third-party arbitrator and union support.

Stanford still refuses to respond to our Inclusive Work Environment proposal on protections and accommodations for disability, religious practice, pregnancy, lactation, and gender and restroom equity. Without these protections in our contract, Stanford can continue to make unilateral changes in policy and enforcement. We cannot win a strong contract through negotiations alone. Our members must take action beyond the bargaining table to pressure Stanford to accept the contract language we need to protect workers from abuse.

Although Stanford did return some articles this session, they made almost no concessions on central issues that workers care about. By dragging their feet, Stanford hopes we’ll give up. We need a strong turnout at our February Action Meeting (FAM) on Wednesday, February 7th to show them that we’re serious about these issues. RSVP here. Know that your voice makes the difference: with your help, we pressured Stanford to agree to supply a new CA/TA/RA position each quarter (or just pay you the equivalent) if they cancel yours! With your continued support, we will force them to guarantee funding for 6 years!

Fight the Power,
Your BC.

2024-01-12: Delay, Deflect, Deny - Stanford's Tactics

Stanford is dragging out negotiations and refusing to listen. We need all Graduate Workers to come together and pressure the administration.

Happy New Year! We’re starting 2024 strong with another bargaining win. We are in tentative agreement with Stanford on training, which guarantees access to the resources you need to support your state of the art research here at Stanford. During bargaining, we shared powerful testimonies from graduate workers about Stanford’s broken promises. But we need your help to move Stanford at the table. Here are the three major takeaways:

DELAY: Stanford continues to drag their feet at the table, only returning one counterproposal at our latest bargaining session. They also haven’t returned our proposal for six-year guaranteed funding after three months of bargaining. Despite promising five years of guaranteed funding on their websites and in admissions letters, many programs still deny their students internal funding..

DEFENDING A BROKEN SYSTEM: In spite of Stanford’s own campus study results showing that its labyrinth of processes for addressing discrimination and harassment don’t work, the university is still refusing our common sense calls for neutral arbitration and Union advocacy through a standardized grievance procedure. Instead, they claim that the status quo is good enough. Moreover, their nondiscrimination counterproposal excludes protections for graduate worker identities that go beyond the legal minimum.

SHIRKING RESPONSIBILITY FOR BECHTEL OPERATIONS: Stanford refuses to take any responsibility for the Bechtel International Center. They believe that Bechtel should set their own timelines, without institutional oversight, despite being fully aware of unacceptable wait times associated with applying for critical visa services.

A Strong Union protects workers: TO MOVE STANFORD, WE NEED ORGANIZED OPPOSITION BEYOND THE BARGAINING TABLE. We won’t allow our membership to be afraid of retaliation or be unheard when their discrimination and harassment claims are reported!

A victory at the table means all of us working together! We are currently collecting testimonials on:
-Lab safety incidents that you believe could have been prevented if not for Stanford’s negligence – if you have stories, you can share them with us here: http://tinyurl.com/sgwusafety.
-Experiences from international graduate workers navigating Bechtel, which you can share here: http://tinyurl.com/sgwubechtel.

Please join us at our all-hands meeting on Thursday Jan 18! At this meeting, we will give updates on our campaigns for six year guaranteed funding, anti harassment and discrimination terms, fellow inclusion, and many of the other issues Stanford has been pushing back on. Make your voice heard!

In solidarity, Your Bargaining Committee

2023-12-14: Stanford Returns Articles

Stanford resists nondiscrimination, workplace safety, fellow inclusion, and rights for international workers.

We hope you’re all doing well and planning for a restful break! TLDR: We made a lot of progress today and got some valuable concessions but Stanford plans to fight us on many fronts, including nondiscrimination, workplace safety, fellow inclusion, and rights for international workers. We won’t let them win. Look below for ways to get involved in the fight!

We just finished day 4 of bargaining with Stanford, and we finally received all but 3 of the articles we needed from them. The counter proposals they presented can be found on our handy-dandy bargaining tracker on our website.

In good news: We reached tentative agreements on two of our articles today! Stanford expressed willingness to host a website advertising open appointment listings We made headway on our grievance and arbitration article, which is critical to enforcing the terms of our contract and protecting workers from abuse and harassment

Unfortunately, there is still a long way to go. Stanford is using technicalities to devalue the work of research fellows and remove them from our union. Stanford also wants to pick and choose which people they will protect from harassment, omitting many protected categories that we had included in our proposals including caste and immigration status. Stanford maintains that whatever protections they will provide with regard to harassment and discrimination will not be enforceable via our grievance procedure. This would amount to a maintenance of the status quo, with no real protections for graduate workers against discrimination and harassment. This is unacceptable to us.

Despite our calls for safe working conditions for our membership, Stanford refuses to provide protections that go beyond the bare minimum required by law or codify rights and protections for international and undocumented workers. It’s clear we need a strong union but Stanford proposes that we accept a weak and unenforceable contract.

Show Stanford that these issues demand an immediate response by signing our Fellows Inclusion Petition and getting involved in Area meetings and the weekly Thursday Contract Action Team meetings! We are also running issue campaigns around fellow inclusion, union security, nondiscrimination, 6 year funding, and international student rights. If you’re interested please fill out our Issue Campaign Interest Form.

Our next bargaining session will be January 12th, 2024. We’re counting on your involvement to fight for the best contract. Please attend your departmental area meetings and make your voices heard!

In solidarity, SGWU Bargaining Committee

2023-11-14: Bargaining Day 3

Won concessions on our name. Stanford stalling on nondiscrimination, disciplinary action, and our ability to enforce our contract.

Fellow grad workers,

TLDR: We won some consequential concessions at bargaining session 3!! Let’s keep this momentum going. Stanford is stalling and wants to fight us on nondiscrimination, disciplinary action, and our ability to enforce our contract. We won’t let them win on these issues!

On Tuesday we met with Stanford admin to continue discussing the fundamentals of our union contract. The four counter proposals they presented can be found on our handy-dandy bargaining tracker on our website.

In our third round of bargaining, the Bargaining Committee was able to break through Stanford’s insistence that they should be able to run the show – even down to what we call ourselves in our contract. Members of the bargaining committee read statements that detailed how being called “students” would diminish the value of the varied and crucial work we do at the university. By coming to an agreement that we will be called “Graduate Workers” (the GW in SGWU), we have effectively told Stanford that they will not be able to dictate the terms of our recognition. This is an important concession for future bargaining sessions grounded in respect and dignity for the work we do and the people we are. It should never have taken this much convincing, but your BC will not back down when it comes to fundamental questions of inclusion and dignity for all workers!

We have also won important concessions from Stanford on appointment letters and employer-covered training! These wins mean that:

1. We will each receive a formal notice detailing our conditions of employment at the beginning of each quarter or year. We’re still working to determine what kind of information will be included in these notices.

2. The university will cover the costs of relevant training for our work. This is an important consolidation of existing benefits, and we continue to fight to expand what can be included under this provision.

Keeping up our momentum is critical for a strong first contract. But Stanford’s tactic is to delay negotiations. By offering intermittent meeting times and stalling on counter proposals for key issues, Stanford is hoping to draw out bargaining. We cannot allow Stanford to continue to drag their feet on major issues like nondiscrimination, fellow inclusion, grievance procedures. Stanford also explicitly rejected our language stating that they must keep any promises they make to workers in admission letters. We insist that Stanford not be allowed to mislead prospective graduate workers so that they accept offers of admission. Show Stanford that these issues demand an immediate response by signing our Fellows Inclusion Petition, and getting involved in Area meetings and the weekly Thursday Contract Action Team meetings!

Our next bargaining meeting will be November 28. We’re counting on your involvement to fight for the best contract. Please attend your departmental area meetings and make your voices heard!

Want to get involved but don’t know where to start? Fill out our interest form here!

In solidarity,

SGWU Bargaining Committee

2023-11-06: Bargaining Day 2

Check out Stanford's first counter proposals. Stanford doesn't want grievances to cover nondiscrimination.

Grad Workers,

Today, we discussed key non-economic issues with Stanford and responded to their questions about our proposals. You can see the university’s two counter-proposals and one proposal for new language in the bargaining tracker. Although we are close to reaching agreement on two articles, Stanford has also taken positions that would harm our union’s ability to effectively represent and protect its membership.

Stanford’s negotiators doubled down on the view that we are students first and workers second, a fundamentally disrespectful argument meant to justify low pay and minimal protections. Like their refusal to recognize fellows as members of our union, Stanford is ignoring the value we all contribute as workers at the University.

Additionally, Stanford wants to prevent the union from protecting its members against discriminatory behavior. We know a union-backed grievance procedure is essential for empowering workers who may experience harm due to their race, gender, disability status, caste, and other protected categories. We need nondiscrimination contract language to hold Stanford accountable.

Our next bargaining meeting will be November 14. We’re giving the University time to reconsider the two positions they’ve taken today. Show Stanford how much these issues matter to you by signing our petition to include Fellows in the bargaining unit. Most importantly, we need you to get involved! Attend your departmental area meetings and make your voices heard!

In solidarity,

SGWU Bargaining Committee