About 3,000 Boston University Graduate Workers Union members went on strike Monday. Workers gathered in Marsh Plaza with signs held high calling for fair wages, comprehensive health care, and stronger benefits such as child care.
This is the union’s first contract negotiation with the university. It's part of the SEIU 509, the Massachusetts Union for Human Service Workers and Educators, which filed unfair labor practice charges at the National Labor Relations Board against the university. For the last nine months, workers met with representatives from the university during a series of 15 meetings.
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“I need to go to the class, I need to grade exams but I also need to be working all the time. There's certain hours I need to go to to be a teaching fellow, and there’s certain hours I need to devote to my dissertation work,” said Pol Pardini-Gisperd, a Ph.D. student and graduate worker at Boston University.
He said he doesn’t make enough to afford living in the city and to take care of his 8-month-old daughter.
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“I can't begin to explain how much we are struggling," Pardini-Gisperd said.
“It is unconscionable that these grad workers, who are making anywhere between $27,000 to $40,000 a year, cannot afford housing, cannot afford childcare,” said former Boston University graduate and Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, who joined the picket line on Monday.
Workers demands include living wages, sustainable and equitable workloads, stronger health care benefits including vision and dental, child care subsidies and family leave, and support for international students.
BU countered with the following proposals :
- an increase in the 12-month PhD student stipends to $42,159 next year and an overall increase representing 13 percent over three years.
- moving PhD students currently on eight-month stipends to nine-month stipends, which would mean an increase in year one of the contract to $31,619.
- Covering 33% of the cost of MBTA passes for 12 months for all BU PhD students and other graduate students in the union.
- Creating a dental insurance plan for all graduate students, for which they would pay the full premium ($452/year), with PhD students receiving a $100 subsidy.
- For full-time PhD students within the five-year funding guarantee, covering the annual cost of dependents that are added to the University’s student health insurance plan for children six years old and under.
- Adding a Graduate Worker Help Fund of $50,000 to help provide needs-based support during times of unforeseen crisis and emergencies.
On March 12, the union voted to authorize a strike if an agreement was not reached by March 25.
Boston University did not say exactly how they would manage the shortage of workers but they issued a statement saying in part, “we are concerned about the strike’s impact on teaching, research, and the lives of thousands of other students, and we are working to minimize that disruption.”
