The United Graduate Workers (UGW-UE 1466) will rally on Tuesday, April 23 at noon on the south side of Scholes Hall to demand that the University of New Mexico pay its graduate student workers a living wage.
UGW and the University are currently negotiating over raises for the approximately 1,500 graduate workers in the bargaining unit, and the two sides are very far apart, even as graduate workers increasingly struggle to afford basic needs such as rent and food.
In one major sticking point, the University refuses to guarantee any type of raise for its 653 Research Assistants (RAs). This is after most RAs were also excluded from raises in the prior two wage negotiation cycles, which means many haven’t seen a raise in years.
“It’s bad enough that the University refuses to prioritize the funding of fair and equitable compensation for any of its graduate workers,” said Wilber Dominguez, an RA in the Physics and Astronomy Department. “But, it’s a complete moral failure that they are once again trying to exclude RAs and making weak excuses about funding.”
According to the 2023 UNM Basic Needs Survey, 11% percent of UNM grad students are homeless and 61% are housing insecure. With the average pay for grad workers less than $1,700 per month, and the average rent in Albuquerque currently sitting at $1,340, grad workers must scramble to survive each month.
Additionally, 55% of grad student respondents on the 2023 Basic Needs Survey report the use of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits to help purchase groceries.
Many UNM grad workers live at or below the poverty line, which stands at $15,060 for an individual and $20,440 for an individual supporting another individual for the year 2024. 80% of UNM grad workers report supporting another with their stipend.
“How does the administration expect us to survive on less than $1,700 a month?” asks Katie Slack, a TA in the Geography and Environmental Studies Department. “Moreover, how do they expect us to be effective at our jobs when our living situations are so precarious? We’re professionals conducting important research and teaching core curriculum classes to undergraduate students, but many of us have to go on food stamps and have multiple gigs just to survive.”
The UGW argues that the low levels of grad worker compensation present not only a failure of care for current grad workers, but a threat to the University’s plans to recruit future grad students to come to UNM to pursue their research and teaching.
UNM is currently classified as an R1 Doctoral University, which is the highest level of research activity, an achievement made possible primarily on the backs of graduate workers.
“UNM likes to talk about being a Hispanic Serving Institution and about their partnership with the Alliance for Hispanic Serving Research Institutions which aims to double the amount of Hispanic doctoral students,” said Jaqueline Martinez, a graduate worker in the Sociology Department. “How do they expect to bring the best and brightest Hispanic students here when they are paying poverty wages? Or do they expect that Hispanic students will work multiple jobs to attend UNM? What are they actually doing to support Hispanic students?”
All graduate workers hold at least a Bachelor’s degree, and many in the UGW bargaining unit possess one or more graduate degrees.
UGW-UE 1466 represents all graduate workers holding Teaching, Research, Project and Graduate Assistantship contracts at UNM, or 1,507 graduate students as of Spring 2024. UGW won recognition in December 2022 and has successfully bargained for wage increases for graduate workers, with the exception of most RAs, during its first two bargaining sessions with UNM.
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