Stanford Graduate Workers Win First Contract

After a nearly two-year long organizing campaign and a contentious contract fight more than 4000 graduate workers at Stanford University have secured their first collective bargaining agreement.

Stanford Graduate Workers Rallying

The Stanford Graduate Workers Union, an affiliate of the United Electrical Workers (UE), launched the campaign in 2023, slowly building support before a successful 24-hour effort to sign up a solid majority of eligible workers on union authorization cards according to Lynde Folsom, a campaign organizer from the Humanities and Sciences department.

“We talked to people everywhere – at dorm events, outside of lecture halls and offices, and at student apartment buildings. We turned department socials into union events,” Lynde explained.

Graduate workers teach, grade exams, and conduct research along with other duties. Their issues included pay rates, on-campus housing costs, mental health and other benefits and protections against discrimination.

“Stanford is like a company town,” says bargaining committee member Parth Nobel who works in the School of Engineering. “Seventy percent of us live on campus and we were paying fifty percent of our earnings in rent.”

Graduate Workers Hearing from Organizers During Rally

In June 2023, ninety-three percent of the workers voted in favor of union representation in an election conducted by the National Labor Relations Board. While the university did not put up a strong fight against the organizing drive, management instead employed stall tactics during the bargaining process in an attempt to run out the clock and take advantage of employee turnover, Folsom says.

Bargaining began in November 2023 but available meeting dates from management were scarce and progress in the talks was nearly non-existent says Nobel.

“It was clear from nearly the beginning that, with the guidance of Stanford’s union-busting lawyers, the university had no intention of reaching an agreement with us. By mid-Summer of this year, we were fed up and it was clear that we had to take action.”

Rallies and other actions were followed by a nearly 90% strike vote. Ultimately, a strike deadline convinced management that it needed to move toward a settlement.

“Once they understood how serious we were in our demands, and facing the threat of a strike, things changed quickly,” says Folsom.

The new three-year contract, overwhelmingly ratified by the workers, includes wage increases, protection against rising housing costs, strong non-discrimination language, a grievance and arbitration procedure, and agency shop.

Members are in the process of electing officers and developing a constitution and dues structure and the SGWU looks forward to affiliating with the South Bay Labor Council in March.

Parth Nobel (left) and Lynde Folsom (right)