Update: In October, BUGWU workers voted to end our 7 month long strike and ratify our first union contract. Knowing that our needs do not magically go away after winning our contract, we are committed to post-ratification organizing to build the workplace and union we want. This Givebutter will therefore now be used for those ends. Read our November 21 update for more details!

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The graduate workers of Boston University need YOUR help to support our more vulnerable members, and keep us going while we work on winning a fair contract! 💰💲💰💲

In December 2022, we formed a strong union with a record-breaking certification election with 1,414 people voting yes and only 28 voting no. A total of 98.1% "yes" votes was completely unprecedented for a union this large!

We are a unit of around 3,500 graduate workers who teach, grade, advise students, conduct research, plan courses and programs, serve on committees, and fulfill administrative roles, among others. We want to secure a good contract for our thousands of hardworking grads across the two campuses of Boston University so that we can pull ourselves out of rent burden.

We began bargaining way back in June 2023. In the 10 months since, the Administration has given us little confidence that they are negotiating in good faith, and shown that they would rather delay. BU took 4 months to make their first counter-proposals on our 28 proposed contract articles, and many of their counter-proposals removed almost everything from our initial proposals, replacing it with vague, unenforceable nonsense.

BU Administration continues to reject our proposals for a fair living wage (which we tied to the current average rent in BU-controlled housing), transgender healthcare consistent with WPATH standards for gender-affirming care, childcare subsidies for graduate worker parents, protection from harassment, dental care, and more. To read our platform-- our specific demands for our workplace to be improved-- Click Here.

To pressure BU to negotiate with us in good faith, on March 25th we started our strike! This followed a strike authorization vote, which passed with 90% support. We are bracing for the Administration to attempt to weaken our strike by cutting our pay to $0 per week, as some other universities have done, rather than coming to the table in good faith.

Your support will help us hold out on our fight against the Administration to win better working conditions and a better life for all of us at BU! 93% of BU's grad workers are rent-burdened, with 40% paying more than half of our income on rent. If you believe that a massive land-owning private university with more than $3,000,000,000 dollars (that's billion with a 🅱️!) should be accountable to its workers and community members, and that graduate workers deserve the fair wages and benefits we demand, please donate and send the Givebutter link to friends and family! You can also use our Text2Donate link: just tell people to text BUGWU to 53-555. All donations will go to our unionized graduate workers to cover their essential expenses and needs.

We hope that our fight will galvanize all workers' fight against rent burden and employer exploitation, in Boston and beyond! ✊

In Solidarity,
the BU Graduate Workers Union

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BU Graduate Workers Union rank-and-file Support Fund

Solidarity with grad worker organizing, in Boston and everywhere!

Team Members