As Israel prepares to expand its offensive in Gaza, UE graduate worker locals across the country have been supporting the encampments that have been established on campuses to protest the war — and taking action to protect the free-speech rights of their members who are participating in the protests.
Both Refresco and Chasen Fiber Technologies thought they could intimidate their mainly immigrant workers — who are members of UE Locals 115 and 155 respectively — by running internal I-9 audits. Under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), employers are required to verify an employee’s identity and their eligibility to work in the country within three days of hiring them. However, employers have the right to audit their own records for compliance, quality, accuracy, and to comply with business contracts.
Five days before we planned to vote to authorize our strike at a General Membership Meeting, the graduate workers of UE Local 197-Teachers and Researchers United reached a strong tentative agreement on our first contract. For graduate workers at The Johns Hopkins University (JHU), this monumental win came more than a year after we voted overwhelmingly to unionize and after 47 bargaining sessions with the university administration. A little over two weeks after we reached a full TA, we ratified our first contract, with a 99.5 percent yes margin, the culmination of years of organizing.
Members of UE Local 704, who handle liquid and bulk commodities like bulk salt, fertilizer, petroleum, and chemicals at a marine terminal on the Ohio River, ratified their second contract with Watco on April 8, 2024. Prior to 2016, Kinder-Morgan had employed Local 704 members. While the battle for an initial contract with the new company took two years of difficult negotiations, the successor agreement negotiations took only three days. Members had more bargaining power due to the company’s ongoing struggle to attract and retain DOT-certified employees in the greater Cincinnati area.
Over 100 UE members and staff from across the country attended the 2024 Labor Notes Conference in Chicago in April. Many were featured panelists or workshop facilitators for 14 different program offerings, highlighting UE campaigns and skills. All participated in a rich variety of workshops, panels, and gatherings designed to grow the “trouble-making” wing of the labor movement.
During 12 days of negotiations with the Franklin Regional Transit Authority (FRTA), the members of amalgamated Local 274 used the threat of picketing and other escalating actions to secure a large wage increase, benefit improvements for all members, and the end of a two-tier system.
Close to midnight on February 21, 2024, after a grueling 15-hour bargaining session, graduate workers at Northwestern reached a tentative agreement with the university administration on their collective bargaining contract. Members of the bargaining committee and observing members broke into applause and hugged one another as the agreement was finalized. Three weeks later, on March 15, 2024, a majority of Northwestern graduate workers voted to ratify this hard-fought and groundbreaking first contract.
After three days of negotiations, the members of Local 222 Sublocal 21 who work as support staff and supervisors for the Trumbull Board of Education bargained and ratified two new contracts. The members won 2.75 percent wage increases each year of the three-year contracts. The workers were also able to negotiate with the company to have their insurance premiums increase only half a percent each year for the life of the contract, totaling only 1.5 percent, and won a matching increase of 0.5 percent to their 401(k) benefits.
UE Local 506 hosted several UE grad worker locals for a training and strategizing meet up in mid-March. Grad workers from public and private universities at different stages of organization (fight for first contract, having a successful strike threat, going into compensation bargaining) got together to learn from each other and from other UE locals including Sargent and Refresco workers (Local 243 and 115, respectively).
Seven UE graduate worker locals gathered together for a Graduate Workers Organizing Committee (GWOC) lunch meeting hosted by Local 1466, the United Graduate Workers of New Mexico, on April 13 during the UE Western Regional Conference.
If you like what you read, please consider subscribing to the UE NEWS — for as little as $5/year you can support great labor journalism and receive the print edition of the UE NEWS four times per year.
You can also sign up to receive monthly UE NEWS Bulletins via email, or follow UE on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.