MISSION STATEMENT

• ​To provide a stable funding system for graduate student employees so they can concentrate on their teaching, research, writing, and lead healthy, balanced lives.​​ ​

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• To make the university a space free of sexual harassment and gender discrimination with a program for reporting without fear of retaliation.

 

• For graduate student employees to get proper safety training and know that they can refuse to do work that endangers their health.

 

• To establish a culture of accountability and transparency that maintains consistent, fair decision making and freer access to information.

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• For graduate student employees to have a voice and make sure that it’s heard.

A UNION CONTRACT GIVES US THE RIGHT TO BARGAIN

JOB SECURITY

• Timely notification (in writing) for employment decisions
• Employment stability throughout our academic programs
• Union representation should we face unreasonable disciplinary measures or possible termination

DUE PROCESS

• A grievance procedure ensuring that of our contract is respected and adhered to
• A clearly defined process for altering and amending the contract as new issues and contingencies arise


PAY

• Fair salaries commensurate with job classification (TA, TF, GSA, GSR) with fixed and periodic raises
• Protection of our valuable tuition waivers

BENEFITS

• Protecting the high quality and affordable health, dental, and eye care insurance
• Expanding health care benefits to include affordable child and dependent care
• Access to free or discounted parking
• Providing what we the graduate student employees find to be reasonable allowances for medical and personal leave
• Providing leaves of absence for bereavement and allowing the graduate student employees to define for whom we are allowed to take an absence for bereavement
• Access to lactation stations​ and gender neutral bathrooms

WORKLOAD

• Have a say in negotiations over what defines a reasonable or unreasonable workload
• Clearly defined limits to the number of students that we are expected to teach
• Recognition for the large amount of intangible and unquantifiable work we do
• Job descriptions that clearly define our duties

​PROMOTION AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION

• Set procedures for evaluating the performance of graduate student employees including:
  • Student evaluations
  • Faculty evaluations
  • A transparent appeals procedure to deal with any discrepancies in the process
  • The right to neutral evaluators to observe the performance of a Teaching Assistant or Teaching Fellow at the request of that graduate student employee

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INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

• Accommodations for international students that have difficulty acquiring the documentation necessary for employment and other immigration help
• Assistance for graduate student employees in the English Language as part of their Employee Training
• Reimbursed SEVIS fees and compensation for attending international graduate student training sessions

Continue to read more about the union organizing rights of international graduate student employees and how the international graduate student community has benefited from having a union at other universities here: http://www.pittgradunion.org/you-belong-here.html

ACADEMIC FREEDOM

• Protection of graduate student speech and writing from institutional censorship or discipline
• Promotion of free intellectual exploration
• A contractually enforceable academic mission that places students, faculty, and staff first.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

• Adherence to federal and state copyright laws
• A commitment to open-access publishing
• An obligation to make scholarship available for public use

​CIVIL RIGHTS

• Privacy
  • Prohibition of the HR office from including our academic records in our personnel files
  • Immediate notification when changes are made to our personnel files
• Discrimination
  • Protection from discrimination on the basis of race, color, veteran status, height, weight, ethnicity, religion, creed, political affiliation and beliefs, membership in any social or political organization, national origin, ancestry, marital or parental status, age, gender, sexual orientation, disability, including HIV status, status as a victim of violence, dress, language and dialect
  • Protection from retaliation for reporting discrimination
• Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employment
  • Equal Opportunity Employment and student recruitment
  • A joint task force to explore and recommend more effective ways to increase diversity and inclusion.