October 28, 2024 update and current university proposal

The university has continued meeting with UE-SGWU, including three days of negotiations last week and additional negotiating days the union agreed to on Monday and today (Tuesday, October 29). We have made significant progress in recent bargaining sessions, and the university remains committed to negotiating with UE-SGWU until an agreement is reached. 

Unfortunately, UE-SGWU has announced that it intends to hold a strike authorization vote by its members in the coming days. The union has a right to take this step, though the university is disappointed in this development, as we believe the negotiations have been progressing.

If approved, a strike authorization vote gives a union’s leadership the option to call a strike. It does not, on its own, initiate an actual strike. As an example, another Stanford union, SEIU, conducted a strike authorization vote this summer and then reached a contract agreement with the university soon afterward.

The university has made a strong and competitive offer to support our graduate workers and to support continued excellence in graduate education at Stanford. This offer includes top-of-the-market minimum salaries for assistantships, relative to our Ivy Plus peers, and a range of expanded benefits that build on the university-paid health premiums, university-subsidized housing, and financial assistance programs for graduate students that Stanford already provides.

Importantly, the university’s economic proposal is directly responsive to the priorities that the union has articulated on behalf of its members. Specifically, all graduate workers will receive a pay increase, with those currently earning the minimum pay for assistantships receiving a larger increase. In addition, all current and future incoming international PhD students will receive a one-time payment to defray visa application costs, another priority for the union.

You can read the university’s current comprehensive proposal, which includes Stanford’s most recent proposals as well as contract articles on which the parties have reached tentative agreements.

Highlights of the university’s most recent proposal include:

• Wages: At our Ivy Plus peer institutions, minimum pay for a 50%-time assistantship ranges from $39,425 to $52,536 in the 2024-25 academic year. Stanford’s current proposal would place our minimum for research assistants and course assistants at $53,148 in the first year of the contract and at $54,688 for teaching assistants. With additional increases in subsequent years, by the third year of the contract these minimums would be $57,208 and $58,868, respectively. Those whose pay is already above the new minimum would receive a 2 percent increase in year one and the same percentage increases as other graduate workers in years two and three of the contract. Deeper background on the university’s economic proposals can be found in the Supporting Graduate Students paper on our website.
• Benefits: Stanford continues to fully cover Cardinal Care health premiums for graduate students, and the university also has long provided support for students with special financial needs. Stanford’s current proposal ensures that the Cardinal Care Subsidy, the Graduate Family Grant program, the Graduate Student Aid Fund, and the Emergency Grant-In-Aid program will remain available to graduate workers as part of their contract. In the latest university proposal, the household income threshold for the Graduate Family Grant program has been increased, and the aid amount toward the total cost of insurance for a spouse under the Graduate Student Aid Fund has been raised. In addition, the Emergency Grant-In-Aid program would be expanded to reimburse expenses for students with chronic medical and mental health conditions.
• Payments to international graduate workers: As stated above, Stanford’s offer includes a new $1,000 payment to each new incoming international PhD graduate worker on an F1 or J1 student visa matriculated each fall, to help defray the costs associated with visa applications.
• Caltrain Go Pass: The university has offered to provide a pass to graduate students for a two-year trial period on the same terms as other Stanford affiliates.
• Protection from discrimination: In addition to the university’s existing procedures available to all community members to respond to cases of harassment and discrimination, the university has offered a contract provision that enables the union to pursue grievances involving Title IX matters against the university after the university’s procedures are completed. The proposal also enables the union to file a grievance related to non-Title IX complaints of harassment or discrimination. In order to allow time for a matter to be handled under university processes and procedures, a grievance on a non-Title IX matter would be held in abeyance for a 5-month period, which could be extended by 1 month.
• Tentative agreements also have been reached on 16 contract articles including union security, university rights, inclusive work environment, health and safety, grievance procedure, and appointment notification.

There is no deadline for the negotiations to conclude, despite the union’s statements to the contrary. The university remains constructively engaged at the bargaining table and hopes to reach agreement with the union in a timely way.

The university also continues preparations in the event a strike occurs. In the event of a strike, classes would continue. Graduate workers would be free to choose whether to participate in the strike or not; those participating in the strike would not be paid if they do not work. Resources for our community regarding strike contingency planning are available in the Frequently Asked Questions section of this website.