The Graduate Student Organizing Committee (GSOC-USW) is made up of graduate students who are employed by the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) to teach classes and conduct research. We want to welcome you to join our ranks! Here's how belonging to a graduate student employee union can benefit you and how it has helped graduate student employees at other universities.
A graduate student employee union is a group of workers who have banded together to promote their common interests. A union speaks with one unified voice on behalf of all the employees, in what is known as the “bargaining unit.”
A bargaining unit is a group of employees with a clear and identifiable community of interest who are (under US law) represented by a single labor union in collective bargaining and other dealings with management.
A graduate student employee union is a group of workers who have banded together to promote their common interests. A union speaks with one unified voice on behalf of all the employees, in what is known as the “bargaining unit.”
A bargaining unit is a group of employees with a clear and identifiable community of interest who are (under US law) represented by a single labor union in collective bargaining and other dealings with management.
The Graduate Student Organizing Committee, organizing the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate Student Employee Union, has a dedicated team to address international student issues. As international students in Pitt’s graduate student employee union, we would be able to address our concerns about workplace rights through collective bargaining and the creation of a binding contract. Together, we can be a leading voice on our issues as graduate student employees advocating to expand opportunities for us, while also preserving the things we love about working at Pitt.
Be informed. Know your rights. Join your union!
You are safe! Joining the Graduate Student Organizing Committee and supporting the union will not affect your student visa status (F1/J1). In the United States, all workers, including immigrant workers, are able to join and be part of labor unions, regardless of documentation status.
You are protected! You have the right to form and be part of a graduate student employee union. You are protected by the Pennsylvania Employee Relations Act, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), and the Freedom of Association guaranteed in the United States and Pennsylvania Constitutions. No one can discriminate against you because of your union membership or participation in union activities in the US.
You have privacy! It is prohibited by law for the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services to ask immigrants about their union membership or union activity when they review your visa application.
You have labor rights! Regardless of your immigration status, if you are working in the US, you are guaranteed to have proper wages and safe working conditions.
You have privacy! It is prohibited by law for the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services to ask immigrants about their union membership or union activity when they review your visa application.
You have labor rights! Regardless of your immigration status, if you are working in the US, you are guaranteed to have proper wages and safe working conditions.
Abhishek Viswanathan
PhD Student Information Science with a concentration in Telecommunication “Graduate students have steadily increasing workloads, stagnant wages and a prospective job market that is increasingly choosing to hire part time and adjunct faculty rather than stable, better-paying, tenure-track professors. This comes at a time when studies have shown that graduate students experience ‘strikingly high’ rates of depression and anxiety. We need to be able to collectively bargain for better wages, better working conditions, and a network of support within our community. A graduate student employee union will get us there.” |
You have a voice! Being involved in a union, or engaging in union activity, is not considered political activity in the US. Union activity involves bargaining and communicating with coworkers with the goal of improving the terms and conditions of your employment. The only forbidden political activity for visa holders in the US is donating money to a political candidate.
You have freedom of expression! Attending rallies, leafleting, and striking are considered to be protected exercises of your freedom of expression and free association rights under the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Act (PLRA). Participation in union actions is always voluntary, and you will not be forced to participate.
You are a movement! As a graduate student employee union at the University of Pittsburgh, we can be part of a movement with nearly 40 graduate student employee unions across the country working to achieve better conditions for graduate student employees. We know of no cases of any international graduate student employees who faced complications or consequences from being both an international student and a union employee.
Your information is confidential! The union support card is confidential and the information you provide is reviewed only by the union and the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board.
You have freedom of expression! Attending rallies, leafleting, and striking are considered to be protected exercises of your freedom of expression and free association rights under the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Act (PLRA). Participation in union actions is always voluntary, and you will not be forced to participate.
You are a movement! As a graduate student employee union at the University of Pittsburgh, we can be part of a movement with nearly 40 graduate student employee unions across the country working to achieve better conditions for graduate student employees. We know of no cases of any international graduate student employees who faced complications or consequences from being both an international student and a union employee.
Your information is confidential! The union support card is confidential and the information you provide is reviewed only by the union and the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board.
Nikhil Thomas Titus
PhD Student Film and Media Studies “I support the graduate student employee union because I believe, irrespective of benevolent organizations and well-intentioned authorities, political representation is essential in building a democratic work environment. The precarious nature of graduate student employee labor necessitates a collective that can persistently advocate for our economic, mental, and physical well-being at the university; it is only through such measures that academia can develop and sustain a meaningful, diverse, and international profile of scholarship.” |
We are all stronger together!
- When lawmakers introduced a plan to tax graduate students on their tuition waivers, the Graduate Student Organizing Committee (GSOC-USW) at the University of Pittsburgh collected over 1,000 letters to lawmakers to oppose it. Together graduate student employees, fellow members of the Pitt community, and other community allies supported GSOC by calling lawmakers. In addition, United Steelworker (USW) members launched a phone banking effort to help stop the graduate tax bill. And together, we won!*
- The graduate student employee union at Columbia University successfully challenged the university administration to extend US federal grants funding, which was only available to American students, to international graduate students as well. The union won summer fellowships with an award of up to $3,000 for international graduate students so they could continue to advance their academic careers.
- The graduate student employee union at the University of Washington won fee-waiver language in their contract that prevents the university from imposing fees associated with a graduate student’s visa, including SEVIS** fees. This fee-waiver is also extended to graduate students who are not currently working as graduate assistants. In 2003, graduate student employees at the University of Wisconsin also led a successful campaign to stop the university from assessing a $125 yearly SEVIS fee for international students.
- At the University of Massachusetts, the graduate student employee union used their grievance procedure to prevent international student fees. The Graduate Employee Organization-United Automobile Workers (GEO-UAW) was able to argue that it was discriminatory to compel international students to pay fees which US citizens did not pay. In an arbitration hearing, the arbitrator ruled in favor of the union and ordered the university to refund all students who had paid these fees.
- The graduate student employee union at the University of California was able to negotiate equal opportunity rights and protections for undocumented graduate student employees. Consequently, students with DACA*** status gained, for the first time, equal opportunities to reach their full potential in their jobs as Graduate Student Researchers (GSR), Research Assistants (RA), Teaching Assistants (TA), and Graduate Student Instructors (GSI) through their programs.
- At Columbia University, the graduate student employee union successfully petitioned the Department of Homeland Security to preserve the extension of Optional Professional Training (OPT) for international STEM graduate students.
- The graduate student employee unions at both the University of California and the University of Washington have played significant roles in passing DREAM Act**** legislation in those states, demonstrating the strength of their unions, and what graduate student employees can achieve when we work together!
- At the University of Wisconsin, the graduate student employee union was able to negotiate an agreement with a local immigration law firm, which grants the graduate student employees access to discounted legal services. The firm also holds presentations on campus with information and updates on the latest developments in immigration law to help guide international graduate student employees through the complex US immigration system.
- The graduate student employee union at the University of Michigan was able to provide international TAs access to a three-week teacher-training workshop in the summer before they begin teaching. The graduate student employees secured financial support for international students attending the training, which included free housing or a stipend, health insurance, and a food allowance.
- In 1994, the University of Wisconsin had an unfair policy requiring international graduate students to purchase insurance covering “medical evacuation and repatriation” (an insurance policy to pay the cost of shipping an individual’s body home if they die in the US). To help their international colleagues, the union successfully fought the policy, which helped ease the financial burden on international graduate students.
- The graduate student employee union at Yale University successfully negotiated into their contract resources to provide optional one-on-one tutoring of English as a Second Language (ESL) for all non-native speakers who choose to utilize the language-learning program.
- Thomas Parran, the first dean of the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, was the US Surgeon General who oversaw the Guatemala and Tuskegee Syphilis Experiments. These experiments violated human rights by way of unethical experimentation on the poor and on people of color.***** GSOC collected over 1,300 petitions demanding that the university remove his name from the Graduate School of Public Health building. Because of our efforts, the University of Pittsburgh’s Board of Trustees voted unanimously in favor of changing the name of the building.
ENDNOTES
*http://wesa.fm/post/pitt-grad-students-take-next-step-toward-unionizing#stream/0
**SEVIS stands for Student and Exchange Visitor Information System. It is a nationwide, Internet-based system that the US government uses to maintain accurate and current information on non-immigrant students (F and M visa), exchange visitors (J visa), and their dependents (F-2, M-2, and J-2).
***Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).
****DREAM Act (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act) is an American legislative proposal for a multi-phase process for qualifying non-resident minors in the US that would first grant conditional residency and, upon meeting further qualifications, permanent residency.
*****http://www.pittgradunion.org/parran-hall-news-release.html
**SEVIS stands for Student and Exchange Visitor Information System. It is a nationwide, Internet-based system that the US government uses to maintain accurate and current information on non-immigrant students (F and M visa), exchange visitors (J visa), and their dependents (F-2, M-2, and J-2).
***Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).
****DREAM Act (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act) is an American legislative proposal for a multi-phase process for qualifying non-resident minors in the US that would first grant conditional residency and, upon meeting further qualifications, permanent residency.
*****http://www.pittgradunion.org/parran-hall-news-release.html