Grad Student Union rallies for fair wages, better benefits
UMD grad students rally for better wages, benefits, and policies on Friday, Sept. 13 outside Kirby Transit Center. Photo by Grant Jones
The Graduate Labor Union of the University of Minnesota held its first rally of the year outside Kirby Transit Center on Sept. 13 to show support for ongoing labor negotiations with the university.
The union said they are fighting for increased pay, comprehensive benefits including dental and vision, elimination of student fees and transparent leave policies from the university. A state mediator is currently in place to oversee the negotiations.
While the UMN Graduate Labor Union consists mainly of graduate students, not all graduate students are represented by the organization. The UMN-GLU only represents graduate students who are employees of the University of Minnesota system. These include research assistants, teaching assistants, and fellows.
Daniel Banegas is a graduate student at UMD and is on the bargaining committee for negotiations. He said that the number one issue for the union is economics.
“Broadly speaking…if you look at the last 10 years, their [grad student] wages haven't kept up with inflation,” said Banegas.
While the exact number fluctuates from person to person, most graduate assistants at UMD receive roughly $21/hour, working 20 hours a week. The wages at the Twin Cities campus are slightly higher, at around $24/hour. The union is collectively seeking a minimum wage of roughly $37,000/year, which would cover the cost of living in Hennepin County.
Economic pressures are a shared burden among union members. Nicole, a graduate student in the Department of Psychology, remarked that it’s frustrating to be forced to work a second job just to pay the bills.
“I currently work a job off-campus for 17 hours a week to be able to afford my rent, and then I also have assistantships on campus that make less than my job off-campus,” said Nicole. “It’s frustrating to have to leave campus to make money that I could be making here. I could be focusing on my studies, and working a job that isn’t focused in my field is extremely frustrating.”
Kaitlin, another psychology student, said that just living off her graduate wages would make food hard to come by.
“Right now, if I were to only survive off of the graduate student wage that our department supplies, I couldn’t even get groceries for the month with what I currently have. It’s ridiculous.”
While wages are the most significant concern for the UMN-GLU, student fees follow closely behind. The union is calling for the elimination of student fees.
UMD grad students (from left to right) Nicole, Kaitlin, Kara rally in support of UMN-GLU negotiations on Friday, Sept. 13 outside Kirby Transit Center. Photo by Grant Jones
Briar Lenz is a grad student working in the Integrated Bioscience Program. He attended UMD as an undergrad and is now researching ecotoxicology. Briar said that while he returned because he liked Duluth, the fee structure needs to change.
“We’re getting charged about a paycheck worth of fees every year,” said Lenz. “I think a lot of us have fees over a thousand dollars right now. They are ambiguous. They have no description on why we’re getting charged for them.”
In addition to charges such as tuition, supplies and food, the UMD “Cost-of-Attendence” website shows that graduate students are charged $1,650 for “required fees.” However, the website does not specify what those fees cover.
For grad student Ben, who works in the Water Resources Science program, even the option to waive certain fees would be a step in the right direction.
“There’s not a lot of use for them,” Ben said. “Some of them are the exercise facility. Some people may use those, but there should be an option to waive those.”
While graduate students made up most of the rally crowd, several undergraduate students attended the event as well. Tom Julstrom said he joined the rally because he thinks the graduate students deserve a fair contract.
“A lot of the time, the people grading your papers and giving your assignments are going to be TAs,” said Julstrom. “If they didn’t do that, we wouldn’t have a university. We wouldn’t have classes or degrees. They deserve a fair wage, benefits, healthcare, and time off. They deserve those things in writing, not just on the good will of the university if it sees fit to grant them.”
Graduate assistants cover a variety of roles at UMD. Graduate Research Assistants work in labs alongside professors. Professors receive a grant to study a particular subject and those grants often pay students to assist in that research. Graduate research assistants spend 20 hours a week working on their particular research project.
Graduate teaching assistants are more familiar to undergraduate students. They assist professors in creating lesson plans, grading assignments and tests, and, in some cases, teaching lectures.
Beyond research and teaching, graduate assistants also have classwork to accomplish. While many programs at the Twin Cities campus contain Ph.D. level work, most graduate programs at UMD are at the Masters level.
“We're all students,” said Banegas. “Some might argue students first and foremost. We work 20 hours a week, and it's kind of intermingled with our being a student.”
Labor rallies have been more visible on campus in recent years. In 2023, the University Education Association, UMD’s faculty union, picketed outside Kirby Transit Center amidst its own labor negotiations.
Prof. Christina Gallup, president of the UEA, said that while there are similarities between the two negotiations, the major difference is the novelty of the UMN-GLU’s contract.
“What graduate students are going through is a little different from what we went through because we have a contract that has been in place but [has] been updated every two or three years since the eighties,” said Gallup. “The graduate student union is a brand new union, so they are making their first contract. Making a contract from scratch is a lot more work.”
Gallup said that while it’s not the business of the UEA to comment on the GLU negotiation details, the faculty union supports the GLU in attempting to improve their workplace conditions.
“We had some informational pickets also because we had a difficult negotiation… and some of the graduate students came and joined us on those informational pickets and showed their support for us,” said Gallup. “The unions at the university show each other support. We are brothers and sisters in our unions. So we want to show that same support for our new graduate student union brothers and sisters.”
The UMN-GLU is currently waiting on a proposal from the university to vote on. If union members vote to accept, a contract will be signed soon after. If union members vote it down, the university will bring forth another proposition. If the union votes the second proposition down, they will then vote to strike.
While union members don’t believe a labor strike is imminent, they are aware of how a graduate strike would affect the university.
“It would be highly disruptive. Especially here,” said Banegas. “If the math department, for example, didn’t have TAs, it couldn’t run. We’re there twice a week, we run discussions, we have a quiz, we have to do all the grading. Without the TAs, the classes couldn’t function properly, at least the way they’re designed right now. And that’s kind of part of our argument.”
In a statement to The Bark, UMN said that they value the work of graduate assistants across the system:
“The University values our graduate assistants’ contributions to our teaching, research, and outreach mission as employees, in addition to their role as graduate students.”
“GLU-UE and the University have made significant progress on our first contract. Together, we have participated in 19 two-day bargaining and mediation sessions since September 2023 and have reached tentative agreements on 23 of 33 articles to be included in the final contract.”
“The administration remains committed to bargaining in good faith until an agreement with GLU-UE is reached.”