SU graduate workers announce they're unionizing, cite low pay, poor work conditions
By Emma Misiaszek, writer for CNY Central | Published January 17, 2023
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SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Syracuse University graduate workers held a press conference Tuesday afternoon on the steps of Hendricks Chapel on the Syracuse campus announcing they intend to form a union.
Graduate student employees, who work in teaching, research and elsewhere are forming their own union to win higher stipends, better healthcare and benefits and increased work protections.
Under the banner of Syracuse Graduate Employees United (SGEU), the graduate student employees are also focused on supporting international graduate student employees and graduate student employees of color.
SGEU is forming a union with SEIU Local 200United.
Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 200United currently represents service, maintenance and library technicians in Syracuse University’s libraries, JMA Wireless Stadium, food services and facilities services.
The graduate workers cite low stipends, poor healthcare and parental benefits, high workloads and few graduate worker protections as the main reasons driving their efforts to organize a union on campus.
Despite a recent announcement from Syracuse University’s Provost that graduate employee stipends will increase by three percent on average for the next academic year, most graduate students at Syracuse still struggle to pay their bills.
The new minimum stipend is $20,000 for master’s students and $22,000 for Ph.D. students. These amounts are well below the living wage for a single graduate student living in Syracuse, calculated by the MIT living wage calculator as $31,070.
International students are especially impacted by low stipends and poor working conditions.
Terese Millet Joseph, a Ph.D. student from Antigua & Barbuda studying Human Development and Family Science said, “I believe my financial hardship has been exacerbated by the fact that, as an international student, I am expected to survive on far less than a living wage, while I am also thousands of miles away from my family and all that is familiar to me.”
Joseph said that she receives little support from the university, which makes her life away from home even more difficult, “I feel that my experience here has stripped me of bits of my humanity. My hope is that a graduate student union will make it easier for those who come behind me.”
Also concerned about their health, the workers want better and more affordable healthcare. After suffering a concussion in 2019, Katie Mott, a third-year Ph.D. student in Sociology, is still drowning in medical debt.
“We need a union so that graduate workers do not have to live in fear that one accident or illness could force them to drain their bank accounts or drop out of their graduate programs. We need fully subsidized health care that actually provides substantial coverage for the diverse set of workers who need it.”
SGEU’s campaign is supported by a number of groups on campus, including Adjuncts United, the Undergraduate Labor Organization, buildings, grounds, and food service workers and faculty.
