What is Graduate Assistants United?
GAU advocates for the interests of graduate workers and seeks to protect and advance our working conditions. GAU is the only legally recognized collective bargaining agent for graduate assistants and researchers at the University of Florida, University of South Florida, and Florida A & M University. The FSU chapter of GAU is currently organizing to gain recognition in order to enter into collective bargaining and contract negotiations with Florida State University. By coming together, we can make improvements in our lives and do much more together than we can alone. GAU is a chapter of United Faculty of Florida (UFF), a statewide organization that represents and bargains for FSU faculty as well as faculty and graduate employees at universities and community colleges all over Florida.
Currently, no graduate assistant at FSU has any job protections, even though we teach a majority of courses. Graduate assistants at FSU are not guaranteed positions each semester, and can be fired at any time without reason. In short, FSU graduate employees have no job security and little say in the nature, frequency, and quality of their placements. The United Faculty of Florida legal team has created authorization cards to begin an FSU chapter of Graduate Assistants United, an organization that would collectively bargain as equals with the FSU Board of Trustees.
What can the graduate assistant's union do for me? (Why should I sign the authorization card?)
UFF-GAU contracts:
- Secure the rights we currently have as graduate employees. In the face of continuing budget cuts, graduate assistants have been targeted as an area where the university can cut costs with "larger classes" and "more teaching assistants, graduate assistants, and adjunct faculty doing the teaching." "Additionally, many graduate employees have lost free library printing, office phones, and "off hour" heating and air conditioning.
- Improve graduate student life at the university, increasing the appeal of FSU programs and the long term value of our graduate degrees.
- Engage in collective bargaining on behalf of you and your fellow graduate assistants over issues such as:
- Health insurance coverage
- Classroom size and fairness
- Parking
- Subsidized childcare
- Student fees
- Due process for grievances
- Wages and hours
- Regulations for hiring and termination
- Library access, fines, and privileges
- International Student Fees
Are FSU graduate workers the first to unionize at a public university in Florida? Is organizing a union legal?
Organizing a union is a legally recognized right of graduate assistants working for Florida's public universities. In fact, the University of Florida was one of the first four schools in the country to have a graduate union. It was founded in 1980. UF, USF, and FAMU also have graduate assistant unions and have won health benefits and improved job security for thousands of graduate workers.
What has happened at other universities in Florida with unions?
UFF-FSU-GAU has fought for and won through campaigns and legally guaranteed agreements: tuition waivers, pay increases, health benefits, workload limits, intellectual property rights, academic freedom, and acted as an advocate when GAs faced bullying or harassment on the job. At both UF and FAMU, when the administration couldn't pay it's GAs, it was GAU that protested and took action to get emergency checks cut.
Over the past 30 years, graduate employee unions allover the country have been negotiating better contracts, improving health care benefits, and setting workplace and educational standards. Though graduate unions have made advances in Florida, we are still far behind other major research universities.
For example, graduate assistants at the University of Wisconsin have contracts, competitive stipends, work regulations, subsidized child care, free health care, and are recognized as integral contributors to undergraduate education and university life.
Are international students eligible to join the Union?
Yes. If you are a graduate student paid through assistantship of any kind, you are eligible. Joining a union does not affect green card or student visa status. If you are an international student and are told that you cannot unionize, you should report the incident to union leadership because it is a violation of state and federal law.
I am happy with my stipend and there are no problems within my department. Won't the union reduce my earnings to compensate for those who are making less in other fields?
No. The union only negotiates wages and benefits to its member's advantage. Standards of pay vary in departments across the university and graduate student wages will not become regulated to the detriment of those currently receiving enhanced benefits.
As graduate assistants we are both students and employees. While many of us are happy with our programs as students, GAU contracts address our conditions as employees and give graduate assistants a voice for our concerns and interests as equals at the bargaining table.
Moreover, the union will be advocating for issues beyond stipends and healthcare that impact all of us. GAU contracts outline basic working conditions, ensuring that graduate assistants have access to the resources they need to do their work. These resources include work safety rules, assurances that GAs are paid for the work they do, and access to a grievance process to settle disputes between GAs and their employer. By working together through collective bargaining, graduate employees will be able to speak to the administration as equals about concerns like parking, fee structure and payment plans, international student fees, job safety, educational standards, and university policies. Your union is what you make it: your employment concerns are union concerns.
©2008 United Faculty of Florida, the Higher Education local of the Florida Education Association
Affiliated with the NEA/AFT/AFL-CIO
