My name is Lee Kennedy-Shaffer, and I am a 4th year PhD student in Biostatistics at the School of Public Health. I facilitated our first bargaining session after announcing our strike deadline. We went in—once again—with the goal of winning a contract with fair pay, affordable health care, and protections against discrimination and harassment. This session demonstrated that we must prepare for a powerful strike starting on December 3 in order to get there.
Sign up here for shifts on the picket line in case the university fails to agree to a fair contract before December 3.
We on the bargaining committee intend to keep negotiating and providing substantive, responsive proposals in order to get this contract done. But the administration continues to only tweak around the edges. You can tell them to change course today and every day until December 3:
Send an email to the administration and urge them to agree to a fair contract before the December 3 strike deadline. Please share this email form with your students, classmates, co-workers, and faculty!
In the bargaining session today, we came to a tentative agreement protecting the current system of tax assistance for international students and had a productive conversation on appointment notification procedures. But, the administration once again failed to agree to paid family leave, improvements to access for mental health and specialist visits, or a grievance procedure for discrimination and harassment complaints. They made marginal changes with token dollar amount increases to their child care benefits, health and dental benefits, and emergency grants proposals—but the administration’s counter-proposals barely offset the costs that student workers face: A $20 rebate on dental insurance is not enough.
We put forward substantive counter-proposals on a range of issues. On child care benefits, we agreed to a pool framework but proposed a pool that would provide similar levels of support to what student workers at other schools receive under their union contracts. On health benefits, we put forth a proposal to address the administration’s concerns regarding administrability while ensuring that student workers can see mental health providers and specialists without facing exorbitant costs and visit limits. We put forward a compensation proposal to address the administration’s concerns about summer stipends while preserving our commitment to securing pay protections and yearly raises for all members irrespective of their program or G-year.
We are making compromises, trying to reach substantive agreements over the key points we care about. But as the Administration refuses to engage on them, we must escalate. We can avoid a strike, but not if they continue to refuse to negotiate over key provisions.
