7-Month Boston University Grad Worker Strike Ends, but Fight May Not Be Over

Boston University graduate student workers signed off on their first union contract with the university this week, ending a nearly seven-month strike. The contract, approved Wednesday, gives doctoral students major raises but still grants them and other grad workers far less in compensation than they demanded.

It also lacks some other sought-after benefits. But its three-year duration means the grad workers can return to the bargaining table sooner than the earlier, five-year proposal would have allowed.

“I’ll be honest, it was a really difficult decision for me,” Alex Kohut, a linguistics Ph.D. candidate, said of her vote for the contract. “On the one hand, we’ve made a huge amount of progress and we’ve advocated and achieved some real differences and changes that are going to be huge for a lot of graduate workers.”

“At the same time,” Kohut added, “I would have liked to have seen more, and it’s really hard to know when the right time to stop pushing is. And so I was really torn.”

This was the longest union-authorized work stoppage among any U.S. college or university employees in at least a decade, according to the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions. Center executive director William A. Herbert cautioned that his organization doesn’t know the length of some strikes during that period, but the BU strike well exceeded the 147-day walkout in 2023 of University of Michigan grad student instructors and staff assistants and the 49-day strike that same year by Columbia College Chicago part-time faculty.

What did this lengthy strike achieve? The new contract will give Ph.D. students $45,000 minimum annual stipends plus 3 percent annual raises during the three-year term. That equals roughly a 70 percent raise for the lowest-paid doctoral students. The university says it already pays Ph.D. students’ tuition and health insurance premiums.

Non-Ph.D. grad workers who are paid hourly will also get 3 percent annual increases.

In addition, the contract includes various benefit increases, including providing full-time grad workers on stipends 14 weeks of paid childcare leave, up from eight. Full-time, stipended grad workers with a combined adjusted household income below $100,000 will also get $3,500 annual childcare subsidies per child below age 6. And student workers will receive 50 percent off Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority student passes.

But the union had sought far more in compensation. According to a union document, the goals included $62,400 annual stipends for Ph.D. workers; $42 an hour for the non-Ph.D. workers (the new contract’s minimum is only $20 an hour); 7 percent annual cost-of-living adjustments or adjustments tied to the median Boston rent increase, whichever was higher; and free tuition for all grad workers.

“I would have liked to have seen something that is more of an investment in long-term sustainability for graduate workers,” Kohut said.

The length of the contract may signal the union’s lingering dissatisfaction. In August, the two sides were still discussing a five-year contract, but in September, the deal on the table was shortened to three years.

The university has said the union’s bargaining unit includes 3,300 grad workers but, by late spring, most of them weren’t striking. On April 29, then-provost Kenneth Lutchen sent a message to the university community saying, “The scope and impact of the strike has waned, as more and more BUGWU [Boston University Graduate Workers Union] members have chosen to return to work. At this point, over 80 percent of the students in the unit are back to work.”

Lutchen also said only a small fraction of grad workers were attending BUGWU membership meetings, and roughly 175 students had voted to continue the strike.

Kohut said she stopped striking a couple of weeks ago. That was partly to see what kind of work she, and others, would be returning to—the university canceled the class she would’ve taught this fall. But she said her decision “also was partly financial.”

On Tuesday, amid the contract ratification vote, an X account for the union posted, “Grad Workers of BU: What more can we win?” before listing unattained goals, including “meaningful raises and pay parity for non-PhDs.”

“The work does not end here!” the account posted. “Every contract is a stalemate in a larger struggle. When management preaches ‘labor peace,’ remember: No contract will enforce itself. We must continue to fight together to protect what we’ve won and win more!”

On Wednesday, SEIU Local 509, which the grad workers’ union is part of, said in a news release that 87 percent of voters voted to ratify the contract. Kohut said there were roughly 500 total votes.

Freddy Reiber, a grad worker, said in the release, “We’ve won significant improvements in our wages and benefits, and that was only possible because of the strength of our membership and the support from the labor community. Of course, the fight isn’t over. We’ve got a solid foundation and are already thinking about the next contract so that we can help create a more equitable BU.”

Dave Foley, president of SEIU 509, said in the release that “this contract fight highlights the true power of unions. When workers come together to take bold, collective action, they can transform their working conditions. We are incredibly proud of our members for holding the line—their tenacity and solidarity sustained them through nearly seven months of striking, and ultimately secured a contract that sets a strong foundation for the future.”

Long Time Coming

BU grad workers voted to form their union in December 2022. After eight months of negotiations, they began striking in March.

During the spring semester this year, the strike interfered with teaching and the delivery of final grades, though it’s unclear to what extent. At one point, arts and sciences dean Stan Sclaroff recommended that faculty use artificial intelligence to manage course discussions, labs and student feedback, leading to national media coverage.

In March and April, the union filed unfair labor practice charges against the university, alleging, among other things, that an associate dean harassed and chased workers who were peacefully delivering fliers, and that personal items were stolen from grad workers’ locked offices. The university said those charges were without merit.

As the strike continued into the summer and fall, the university hired a new provost and president, and a federal mediator got involved. On Aug. 27, according to a written bargaining update from the university, “the union clarified that it is seeking a contract duration of less than five years.”

On Aug. 30, current provost Gloria Waters posted a message to the campus saying a small fraction of grad workers had rejected the university’s latest offer. Waters expressed concern about the strike continuing into the fall, saying the walkout would “also cause a delay in thousands of our graduate students receiving the benefits of the new, fair and competitive package.”

Now the strike is over, and a new contract is ratified.

“We have seen huge improvements and this is a big win for us,” Kohut said of the contract. “And so even though there were some desires and demands left on the table, we know that this is a really great start.”