BU Graduate Workers Launch Strike with Rally, Picket Plans
University ready to continue negotiations
U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) offers rousing remarks during a kick-off rally by the striking Boston University Graduate Workers Union on Marsh Plaza Monday afternoon. Pressley (Hon.’21) was a student at BU’s College of General Studies for two years before leaving to work full-time at the Boston Marriott Copley Place in the mid-1990s. Photo by Janice Checchio
BU Graduate Workers Launch Strike with Rally, Picket Plans
University ready to continue negotiations
Boston University Graduate Workers Union kicked off a strike on Monday with a noon rally on Marsh Plaza that featured fiery words from a number of graduate students, along with a speech from U.S. Representative Ayanna Pressley (Hon.’21) (D-Mass.) and a later appearance by U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
Members of BUGWU, which represents more than 3,000 master’s, professional, and PhD graduate students, walked off their jobs Monday to press for a new contract with increased stipends and better benefits, among other issues. The BU bargaining unit is part of SEIU 509, the Massachusetts Union for Human Service Workers and Educators.
The next negotiating session between the union and University is set for Wednesday.
As many as 400 strikers and supporters from local unions, including those at Tufts, Harvard, and Northeastern universities, crowded into Marsh Plaza to hear speakers say it’s more than a contract dispute, it’s a fight for economic justice for a long-overlooked segment of the workforce.
A University statement in response to the protest said: “We value our graduate students and their many contributions to teaching and research and will continue to address their needs through the collective bargaining process.
“At the same time, we are concerned about the strike’s impact on teaching, research, and the lives of thousands of other students, and we are working to minimize that disruption,” the statement continued. “We remain committed to improving the lives of our graduate students through negotiations and hope that process will bring the strike to an end quickly.”
Pressley (Hon.’21), who was a student at BU’s College of General Studies for close to two years in the mid-1990s before leaving to work full-time at the Boston Marriott Copley Place, said that experience taught her what it’s like to feel “part of an invisible workforce.”
“BU, do you see us now? BU, do you hear us now?” Pressley said to raucous cheers.
BU officials say they have met with representatives of the BUGWU bargaining unit to negotiate at least 15 times since July 2023. The University has created a Frequently Asked Questions page that includes more detailed information on the strike, its impact, and the University’s efforts to make sure education continues during the strike.
The two sides remain far apart on key issues, and University officials have acknowledged some frustration that the union has not responded to multiple offers that BU has put on the table. In the union’s own “Bargaining Tracking Sheet,” which it has posted on its public Instagram page, approximately 40 separate issues are listed as being negotiated. The words “We need to respond to BU,” appears next to more than 20 of them, including Benefits, Compensation, Childcare Subsidy, Parental Leave, and Gender Affirming Care. Also, on Monday, BU officials said the union declined a request to bring in a federal mediator from the Federal Mediation & Conciliation Service.
The University’s latest offer includes an increase in the 12-month PhD student stipends to $42,159 next year and an overall 13 percent over three years. BU has also offered a commitment to raising the minimum rate for students paid hourly, from $15 to $18.
The University offer would also move PhD students currently on eight-month stipends to nine-month stipends, which would mean an increase in year one of the contract to $31,619. Along with various benefit changes, the University would create a Graduate Worker Help Fund of $50,000 to help provide needs-based support during times of unforeseen crisis.
The union says it is seeking a stipend increase of roughly 50 percent to $62,440 in the first year of the contract, and that the hourly worker minimum wage be set to $41.63, more than double the University’s offer. The union is also seeking improvements to benefits, including health care and child care.
Pressley’s speech, which came roughly halfway through the rally, fired up the crowd on a blustery, cold March afternoon.
“As someone who attended this institution and who was also a hotel worker for six years, this struggle hits close to home for me,” she said. “I’m here today because this fight…is an intersectional issue that transcends communities. I’m here today to affirm, to celebrate, and to recognize your labor.”
Warren showed up after the rally and joined the protestors on Marsh Plaza, carrying a BU Grad Workers on Strike sign.
Other speakers at the rally included striking representatives of several BU departments as well as members of the Starbucks workers union and unions on other campuses, including Harvard University. Other universities saw strikes last fall before contract agreements were reached, part of what the Boston Globe has called “a nationwide surge of union activity in higher education.”
“Workers are fighting back. In the past several years, we’ve seen unprecedented waves of strikes in organizing throughout higher education,” said Dave Foley, president of SEIU Local 509, which BUGWU is part of. “Through collective action, workers can build power to make their lives and their communities better.”
“BU has consistently undervalued your efforts,” undergraduate speaker Jasmine Richardson (Pardee’25) of the Residence Life (ResLife) union (which is this part of SEIU) told the rally. “Grad workers go above and beyond and for that grad workers deserve recognition. BU continues to talk about their concerns about the disruption to our class time. But I want to be clear we are learning a lot on this picket line. We are learning to stand up for our community and to fight for what’s right.”
Before and after the rally, striking union workers and their supporters marched around Marsh Plaza, holding signs and chanting. Drivers on Commonwealth Avenue honked to show support, while BU tour guides shepherded groups of prospective students around the fringes of the rally.
The grad students include anyone in a research or teaching role, who is paid for up to 20 hours of service work per week. As students who are fulfilling course requirements, doing dissertation research, and contributing to ongoing research and scholarship, they spend additional time on their duties, they say. All PhD students receive free tuition and health benefits for at least five years on the Charles River Campus, while master’s and professional graduate students pay at least some tuition.
Several rally speakers called on the University to use part of its $3 billion endowment to fund increases for the union. However, college endowments are largely made up of pledges and gifts donated by individuals toward specific reasons, such as to fund scholarships, to launch new programs, or to help build new facilities, and funds may not be redirected for any purpose.
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