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Graduate student workers at Syracuse University voted 92% in favor of officially ratifying their first contract with the university after about seven months of negotiations. The voting result, announced Tuesday afternoon, means the new contract is now in effect.

The vote was hosted in the JMA Wireless Dome from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday and 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Tuesday. Syracuse Graduate Employees United’s bargaining committee started negotiating with the university after graduate students voted in favor of recognizing the union in April 2023. The union reached their first tentative collective bargaining agreement with the university last week.

Under the agreement, along with a median 24% stipend increase next year, the university will subsidize 80% of graduate workers’ health insurance and 100% of their preventative dental care. The agreement also includes a $1,000 ratification bonus as well as time off without a reduced stipend.

The contract will provide first-year international graduate workers SEVIS and Visa fee reimbursement and will make childcare subsidies for graduate workers with a household income under $65,000 available. The agreement also gives the same academic freedom rights to graduate employees as full-time professors.

“I want to thank the members of both bargaining committees for their thoughtful, diligent and constructive engagement to get us here,” Vice Provost Gretchen Ritter said at Wednesday’s University Senate meeting.

Throughout the bargaining process, the union called for a “respectable” wage, the ability to work a second job and a workspace free of harassment and discrimination. SGEU first launched its unionization campaign in January 2023 in hopes of a higher stipend pay, improved healthcare and better protections for workers, according to a release from the Service Employees International Union.

Published on March 26, 2024 at 1:48 pm