UE NEWS Updates

Pages

Historic Wage Increases and New Job Classifications in Local 106 Contract

February 26, 2025
Port Reading, New Jersey

On February 5, members of Local 106 ratified a new three-year contract with Buckeye Pipeline. The contract includes the highest raises the local has received from the current company, which took over the operations of the Port Reading terminal in 2013. In addition to wage increases of up to 12 percent, the members won contract language on new job classifications that they have been fighting for since Buckeye took over.

New UE Music Video

February 13, 2025
Pittsburgh

UE has produced our first-ever music video! Singer-songwriter Mike Stout recorded his anthem about UE history, “We Are the Rank and File” in 2023; the UE Communications Department has set the tune to images of UE struggles past and present, along with footage of Stout performing the song at the 2023 UE Convention.

Video production by UE Digital Organizers Ebony Thomas and Samantha Cooney.

Minnesota Graduate Workers Win First Contract on Eve of Strike Authorization Vote

February 7, 2025
Minneapolis
By Sam Boland, UE Local 1105-University of Minnesota Graduate Labor Union

At nearly 3am on November 25, 2024, after more than 30 hours spent bargaining over two days, graduate workers at the University of Minnesota reached a tentative agreement with university administration on their collective bargaining agreement. Bargaining committee members were left exhausted after a grueling two days of mediation, but held their heads high with the knowledge that the local’s first contract made significant strides toward securing dignity for all graduate workers and addressing the most urgent needs of union members.

In the Heart of Silicon Valley, Stanford Graduate Workers Secure Historic First Contract

February 7, 2025
Palo Alto, California
By Chris Gustin, Nora Enright, and Ocean Zhou, UE Local 1043

Only 12 hours away from an impending strike, the graduate workers of Stanford University secured a strong tentative agreement on their historic first contract. The members of UE Local 1043, the Stanford Graduate Workers Union (SGWU), ratified this contract on November 22, 2024 with over 85 percent voting in favor.

Locals 1186 and 667 Put UE Policy on Peace Into Action

February 7, 2025
Madison, Wisconsin and Pittsburgh

During UE’s 78th convention, rank-and-file delegates passed the resolution “For Jobs, Peace, and a Pro-Worker Foreign Policy.” It calls on the union at all levels to inform and engage members about the need to change U.S. foreign policy to promote diplomacy, democracy, and workers’ rights. It further directs members to promote involvement in labor-based efforts to effectively create that change. Over the past year, Local 667 and Local 1186 have both put that resolution into action.

General Executive Board Reviews Workplace Challenges Under New Administration

February 7, 2025
Pittsburgh

The UE General Executive Board, which consists of 16 elected rank-and-file members from the union’s two geographic regions, along with the three elected national officers, met on January 30 and 31. The board heard reports on UE’s organizational, political action, education and international solidarity work, and made plans for the 2025 UE National Convention, which will be held in Chicago in August.

Defending Democracy in Higher Education

February 5, 2025
Statement of the UE General Executive Board

As a union representing tens of thousands of academic workers, we are in a struggle against a decades-long effort to undermine the education and research mission of higher education.  Administrators are abandoning the stated core values of their universities and instead joining with their investors to transform robust academic institutions into profit-making enterprises. This model rests on the labor of overworked and underpaid graduate workers who provide undergraduate instruction and bring in billions of dollars in research funding.

UE Local 197-TRU Organizes to Take Down AI Surveillance Cameras at Johns Hopkins University

February 3, 2025
Baltimore
By Sophie D’Anieri and Janvi Madhani, UE Local 197-TRU

Over the weekend of October 5, 2024, Johns Hopkins graduate workers, members of UE Local 197-Teachers and Researchers United, were alarmed to find that five AI smart surveillance towers had been surreptitiously installed across the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) campus in Baltimore, Maryland.

UE Local 115 Members March on the Boss and Win Fair Vacation Request Form

February 2, 2025
Wharton, New Jersey

After a petition and a march on the boss, the members of UE Local 115, who work at the Refresco bottling plant, convinced their employer to abandon a confusing vacation request policy.

Last year, many members complained that the vacation request form was unnecessarily confusing. Initially, corporate representatives agreed that the company would not use the form any more. However, plant management published the same form this year.

Pages

Subscribe!

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.