Dear Stanford community,
As you may have seen, the Stanford Graduate Workers Union (UE-SGWU) has completed a strike authorization vote. We are writing to share more about what this means and details of the contract offer the university has made to the union.
Stanford’s guiding philosophy is to provide support sufficient to allow the very best candidates for graduate study to choose Stanford. Most importantly, students get the lifelong benefit of a Stanford education, mentoring, and graduate degree. We also provide tuition, pay levels at the top end of U.S. universities, subsidized housing, health care, and supplemental funding directed at students with greater financial needs, such as those with children.
The university has engaged in many bargaining sessions with the union, which have led to progress toward a first contract on multiple dimensions. We have reached 18 tentative agreements with the union. Unfortunately, after a year of negotiations, we have not seen a reasonable economic offer from the union, which is currently demanding a pay increase of 14-16% in the first year of the contract and additional increases in subsequent years.
The university has put forward a fair and competitive contract offer for graduate student workers, including a salary increase of at least 12% over a three-year period and expanded benefits. Stanford’s offered salary levels, as communicated earlier, are the highest among our Ivy Plus peers. The university’s Supporting Graduate Students paper compares the university’s salary and benefits to a cost-of-living measure advocated by the union, showing it exceeds it by a generous margin. The university’s proposed pay increases would also keep pace with or exceed the rent increases for university-subsidized housing (measured by the weighted average increase) in each of the three years of the contract.
We respect UE-SGWU’s right to hold its strike authorization vote, but we hope the union will focus on progress at the negotiating table so that graduate workers can realize the benefits of a contract agreement in a timely way. Simultaneously, we have been working to plan for the possibility of a strike, which the union has said could begin on Tuesday, November 12. If a strike occurs, classes and other university operations will continue, and the university will work to preserve continuity in our teaching and research to the greatest extent possible. We will provide additional information in the coming days about operational issues in the event of a strike, and our website already has a great deal of information. Course instructors and research supervisors should consult the Contingency Planning document, the Academic Progress and Assistantship document, and the FAQs on our website.
If a strike occurs, graduate workers will be free to choose whether to participate or not. Those participating in a strike, and therefore not working, will not receive salary. The university plans to administer attestations so that graduate workers who choose to work during the strike can attest to their work and continue to be paid. Details of this attestation process will be made available soon. Students must also continue to fulfill their academic requirements.
The union’s current wage demand is far out of line with the increases provided to other employee groups, including employees represented by SEIU Local 2007 with whom we recently reached a new contract, and fails to reflect the fact that Stanford already provides highly competitive pay and benefits. We understand that affordability is a concern for everyone in our area, which is why the university has invested so much in providing subsidized graduate housing and health insurance as well as fair and competitive wages. Meeting the union’s demand for an above-market pay raise would be unfair to other groups of employees. It also would widen the gap between the cost of a research assistantship and the available funds in many federal research grants, making it difficult for faculty to conduct research with graduate students and leading to a likely reduction in the number of students we could train.
We hope this information is helpful. While differences remain in the negotiating process, we remain committed to constructive discussions at the negotiating table and hopeful for a positive resolution that continues to support an excellent graduate education at Stanford.
Sincerely,
Jenny Martinez
Provost
Stacey Bent
Vice Provost for Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs
Current university proposal
You can read full details of the university’s offer and a summary. Highlights include the following:
Fair and competitive wages: These pay increases would ensure that any school, department, or program rate for graduate workers will be increased by at least 4.5% in year 1 of the contract, 4% in year 2, and 3.5% in year 3, for a total of at least 12%. Rates for research assistants and course assistants currently at the university minimum would increase by more – a total of 6.5% – in year 1. Stanford’s minimum pay levels for 50%-time positions in year 1 would be $53,908 on an annualized basis for research assistants and course assistants, and $54,952 for teaching assistants. That compares to minimums ranging from $39,425 to $52,536 at our Ivy Plus peer institutions this year. And, the university’s proposed pay increases would keep pace with or exceed the rent increases for university-subsidized housing (measured by the weighted average increase) in each of the three years of the contract.
Strong package of benefits: The university’s proposal also addresses a range of benefits for graduate workers – codifying in the contract a variety of benefits already available to graduate workers, and increasing or expanding some of these benefits. Highlights include:
Continued full university coverage of Cardinal Care health premiums for those with assistantships of 25%-time or more
A new $1,000 payment to each new incoming international PhD graduate worker on an F1 or J1 student visa matriculated each fall, to help defray the costs of visa applications
Graduate student eligibility for the Caltrain Go Pass program for a two-year trial period on the same terms as other Stanford affiliates
Increased household income threshold for the Graduate Family Grant program, which provides up to $20,000 per year to eligible graduate worker families depending on need
Increased aid toward the total cost of insurance for a spouse under the Graduate Student Aid Fund
Expansion of the Emergency Grant-in-Aid program to reimburse expenses for students with chronic medical and mental health conditions
Contract provisions addressing the union’s ability to pursue grievances of Title IX matters (after the university’s procedures are complete) and of non-Title IX complaints of harassment or discrimination (after a waiting period to allow time for a matter to be handled under the university’s process)