Who is Syracuse Graduate Employees United (SGEU)?
We are the more than 1,000 graduate student workers who perform various kinds of labor for Syracuse University. We conduct research, teach undergraduate students, support campus initiatives, and perform other essential jobs. SU works because we do. Yet, our highly skilled labor is met with poverty wages and precarious working conditions. In particular, we are concerned with the lack of support and protections for international graduate student employees, and graduate student workers of color. A 12-month living wage for Syracuse is $32,000. Yet, grads working full-time earn around $22,000 on average. Hundreds of grads also endure part-time employment, earning as little as $14 per hour. Meanwhile, our rent and health insurance premiums rise year after year while we lack basic protections from overwork, harassment, and discrimination. In 2023, we won our union election with a 95% union yes vote. Now, we are collectively bargaining a contract that reflects the pay, benefits, and respect that we deserve.
Who is SEIU Local 200United?
SEIU Local 200United is a union made up of thousands of workers in New York, Vermont, and Pennsylvania. Local 200United members currently include janitors, nurses, educators, first responders, and our own campus facilities workers. Our relationship with SEIU Local 200United started in 2016 and has grown stronger every year. Their commitment to our unionization campaign has provided us with the support, foresight, and motivation we need to win.
Our History
Our current campaign launched in the fall of 2021. We spent the 2021-2022 academic year gaining momentum, building our organizational capacity, and training graduate student workers as organizers. In the summer of 2022, an organizing committee made up of graduate student workers started having real conversations with graduate workers all over campus. In every conversation we had, we gained more insight into the working conditions each graduate worker experiences and how they would like to see those conditions improved. During the Fall of 2022, we continued to organize, have conversations with our coworkers, and sign cards in support of a recognized graduate employee union at SU.
On January 17, 2023, we publicly announced our intent to unionize after reaching majority support of stipend graduate workers on campus. We held a press conference where graduate student employees shared their stories about unfair working conditions, lackluster pay, and unmet needs. We received tremendous support from our campus and Syracuse community and continue to organize and build out our union. On February 8th, 2023, hundreds of graduate workers and supporters marched and delivered a letter to Provost Ritter asking for voluntary recognition, as well as signed letters of support from campus and community groups. Our demonstrations of collective power were effective, and in March of 2023, we signed an election agreement with the administration that guaranteed a fair and speedy election for our union.
On April 3rd and 4th, after a month of Get Out the Vote (GOTV) organizing, we won our union election with a vote of 728-36 - a 95% union yes margin! After taking time to celebrate, we held an election for our bargaining committee in May. Now, we are preparing to collectively bargain our first contract that will meet the needs of all graduate student employees at SU. In addition to the hundreds of conversations we have had with graduate workers over the past two years, the bargaining committee is also gathering the working conditions and contract priorities of our members through our bargaining survey.