Union FAQ

Basic Questions
Graduate Unionization Campaigns
Strikes
References

Basic Questions

What is a union? Why do graduate students want to form a union?

A union is a democratic workers’ organization whose goal is to maintain or improve employment conditions, such as fighting for better wages and benefits, improving working conditions, raising safety standards, establishing grievance mechanisms, preventing unfair dismissal, and protecting and strengthening workers’ bargaining power. A union collectively negotiates with the employer to reach a contractual agreement to protect and promote their rights and interests.

What is collective bargaining? What issues can be addressed through collective bargaining?

Collective bargaining is a process protected by U.S. law, aimed at balancing the power relationship between employees and the employer. In collective bargaining, employees elect representatives to negotiate with university administration on equal terms, and the negotiated terms of employment are written into a legally binding contract. Graduate students, postdocs, and other academic workers at numerous universities across the U.S. have won higher wages and benefits, stronger protections against discrimination and harassment, better family benefits (such as paid leave and childcare subsidies), and many other important provisions through collective bargaining.

Why should every university employee join a union?

The most fundamental strength of a union’s bargaining power lies in its membership numbers. During negotiations, university administrators will try to reduce the benefits guaranteed in the contract to cut labor costs, even though university employees bring in profits far exceeding their pay levels. Therefore, employees must act collectively to force the school to make concessions on labor rights they deserve. This is in the interest of every employee and requires every employee to take action to achieve it. Therefore, every university employee should join or demand the formation of a union.

How will the union guarantee improvements to specific working conditions?

The union is not a third-party organization that provides services to workers; it is made up of unionized workers themselves. Each of us as university workers should participate in the union’s organizing work to maintain a united and powerful union capable of strong bargaining through persistent day-to-day organizing. Every union member can participate in drafting contract-related clauses and has the right to decide which improvements should be included in the next round of contract negotiations through democratic voting. As union members, we vote on whether to approve a contract. If we are not satisfied with it, we can vote “no” and continue bargaining until we reach an agreement that satisfies the majority.

What are union dues? How much are they? What are they used for?

Joining the union means members regularly pay dues to the union to support its activities. These include paying dues to affiliated parent unions, obtaining legal support during bargaining, covering salaries of full-time union staff, organizing activities, and maintaining strike funds during strikes or other actions. For most university worker unions, dues range from 1% to 2% of wages. The employment benefits protected through collective bargaining are typically much greater than the dues members pay.

If I don’t join the union, can I still enjoy the same contract benefits as members? Then why should I join?

Contract terms achieved through union collective bargaining generally apply to all covered employees, whether or not they are union members. However, union membership numbers are the fundamental basis of the union’s bargaining power. In the U.S., some conservative political groups have pushed for and passed “right-to-work” laws in certain states to limit and weaken union bargaining power.¹ These laws prohibit requiring employees who are covered by union contracts to pay union dues—so employees in those states can receive the same contract protections without paying dues. However, this severely reduces union funding and weakens the union’s leverage in bargaining, thereby reducing the long-term benefits that union contracts can provide. In states without right-to-work laws, all employees protected by the contract automatically contribute a portion of dues to the union. Whether or not you live in a right-to-work state, joining your union and paying dues is an important way to protect your own rights. Moreover, whether or not you are in a right-to-work state, only union members can participate in the union’s democratic decision-making, which is crucial for employees to defend their interests through collective action.

Can Chinese students join a union?

Yes! Every international student employee, regardless of nationality or visa type, has the right to join a union. Your right to join a union is protected under the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee of freedom of association. International students have the same rights as domestic students to participate in union activities. Graduate students, postdoc, and faculty at many schools have unionized and negotiated contracts, and university unions have existed in the U.S. for nearly 50 years. International students have always been active and central participants in union activities, including leading strikes and other collective actions. Their efforts have significantly improved the living standards of academic workers today. So far, no university employee has faced issues because they are both an international student and a union member. Discrimination based on union membership status or participation in lawful union activities is illegal. Some Chinese students may worry that joining a union could pose risks from the Chinese government. But Chinese students’ visas in the U.S. are issued by the U.S. government and have nothing to do with the Chinese government, which also has no way to know about your union membership.

Will joining a union affect my future visa applications or job search in the U.S.?

No. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is not allowed to ask about an applicant’s union membership or lawful union activity, nor can this information be considered in reviewing a visa application. Doing so would be illegal. Although visa application forms once included a question about union activity, that question was removed several years ago. Additionally, unions generally keep membership information confidential. A union will not disclose your membership to your home country, previous university, or any department at the university where you work.

Graduate Unionization Campaigns

In recent years, more and more higher education workers (graduate students, PhDs, postdocs, lecturers/staff) have chosen to form unions to protect their labor rights. In this section, we answer common questions about forming a union.

Why do higher education workers form unions?

Before a union is formed, university administrators can unilaterally change employment policies and benefits without consulting the affected employees. Once a union with collective bargaining rights is established, we can negotiate with university management on equal terms and establish our working conditions in a legally binding contract. Once a contract is signed, management can no longer unilaterally change its terms. Forming a union means we can join our voices with thousands of other academic workers in the same bargaining unit to influence policy decisions that directly impact our lives—for example: better wages and benefits, stronger protections against discrimination and harassment, better family benefits (like paid leave and childcare subsidies), federal funding for scientific research, and federal immigration and visa policies. Through these reforms, we aim to improve conditions for ourselves and for future generations of academic workers.

What is a union authorization card? How is it different from a union membership card?

A union authorization card is a card that employees sign to indicate support for forming a union. Signing the authorization card means you want to hold a union certification vote for university employees. Once enough employees sign the cards, a relevant labor authority (varies by state) will initiate a vote, where employees will decide whether to form a union. The authorization card is not the same as a union membership card. A union membership card is signed after a union has been formed, indicating that an employee wants to become a union member and pay dues. Signing an authorization card does not make you a union member, nor does it mean you will pay dues.

Will I face retaliation from my department or advisor for signing an authorization card?

Unless you voluntarily disclose this information, your department and advisor will not know how you voted, and you are not obligated to tell them. It’s important to note that one of the key reasons to form a union is precisely to protect employees from retaliation in the workplace. Forming a union will not stop you from resolving issues one-on-one with your advisor or using existing channels in your department. However, when those channels are insufficient, the union gives you more options, including:

The right to have a union representative present when meeting with your advisor or other department leaders
The right to use a grievance process to defend your rights when the contract is violated
Legal protections. If you face retaliation due to union activity, you are protected under relevant laws—for example, in Michigan, the Public Employee Relations Act provides legal protection

Can Chinese students sign a union authorization card to support forming a union?

Yes. International researchers at universities have the same labor rights as U.S. citizens, so signing a union authorization card will not affect your current visa or future applications for lawful permanent residency. Since 2008, thousands of postdocs and other academic workers across the U.S. have signed union authorization cards and formed unions. There have been no reports of anyone’s visa or green card application being delayed or denied because of signing an authorization card or participating in a unionization campaign.

What are some common anti-union tactics?

University administrations may try to prevent employees from forming a union by the following tactics:

Bureaucratic obstruction: University administrators may file legal challenges during a unionization campaign. Universities typically have ample resources to delay the process through litigation, and they may find various reasons to deny certain workers the right to unionize—preventing authorization cards from reaching a majority threshold. However, if a supermajority of employees in the bargaining unit sign authorization cards, the law will be on our side.
Departmental discouragement: Deans and department chairs may come under pressure from upper-level administration to restrict the spread of union-related information, and they may even circulate anti-union messaging in official communications. Common anti-union talking points include:
- “Graduate workers aren’t workers because their research is part of their education.”: While research is indeed a key part of many graduate programs, universities also directly benefit from our research labor. For example, the journal articles and conference papers required for many PhDs often serve as the basis for faculty grant applications—which are a major funding source for research universities. Many graduate workers also perform critical tasks unrelated to their personal academic progress, such as setting up and maintaining equipment, purchasing supplies, mentoring undergraduates, and ensuring Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) compliance. For these reasons, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled in 2016 that there is no reason to exclude student researchers from collective bargaining rights.²
- “Graduate students don’t need contract protections because their departments and advisors will look out for them.”: While many advisors and department chairs do want to support their students, this is not always the case. A contract is the only way to ensure all grad workers have support and protection from unfair treatment. In some cases, university-wide policies or resource allocations may even prevent faculty from adequately supporting students—creating an opportunity for unions and faculty to collaborate on shared goals.
- “Unionizing will hurt the advisor-advisee relationship.”: Forming a union gives students more tools to navigate challenges in the advising relationship—it doesn’t take away any existing options. Peer-reviewed research has investigated this concern and found the opposite is true.³
- “Grad unions are untested and could lead to unpredictable consequences.”: As higher education has evolved, graduate student unions have become increasingly common. Schools like UC Berkeley, Brown, Columbia, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, NYU, Stanford, UChicago, UCLA, and Yale have all formally recognized graduate worker unions.
- “Any union gains will be canceled out by union dues.”: In practice, the economic benefits won through union contracts far outweigh the cost of dues. For example, the 2023–2026 contract for the grad union at the University of Michigan includes wage increases of 8%, 6%, and 6% over three years—whereas the university’s pre-strike offer was just 2% per year. This difference alone far exceeds the 1.65% union dues rate, not to mention additional savings from improved benefits like healthcare and childcare.

What is the process of forming a union?

Building an organizer network: University employees are often relatively isolated in their individual departments and labs, which makes it difficult to share information and work towards a common goal. To address this problem, we need to build a network of well-connected organizers across departments, who are actively involved in their own departments.
Collecting union authorization cards: Signing “yes” on a union authorization card is how university employees formally indicate that they want to unionize. The union campaign can only move forward when a majority of university employees sign “yes” on union authorization cards – a reasonable goal would be to collect cards from 85% of employees involved, with at least 60% voting “yes”.
Submitting authorization cards to the reviewing agency: After submitting individual union authorization cards, workers need to pressure the university’s office that handles collective bargaining between university employees (e.g. graduate teaching and research assistants) and the union to recognize the union. Schools will usually deny the validity of some of the authorization cards for a variety of reasons to prevent a majority vote of approval, but when workers collect an overwhelming majority of “yes” votes, the school will have no way to block the approval.

What is the parent union of a university union?

In the U.S., unions are often affiliated with a parent union. The parent union’s operations are supported by dues from local unions. The functions of the parent union include: coordinating and allocating union resources, providing full-time employees for unionization campaigns, providing legal assistance for collective bargaining, contract enforcement, and resolution of labor disputes, providing financial support for strike actions by local unions, and providing a voice for the union’s political demands (such as changing federal policies).

University unions in the U.S. are affiliated with many different parent unions (including UAW, UE, SEIU, AFT, etc.). In the past, these parent unions did not often represent academic workers (for example, the UAW was mainly dominated by auto workers). However, in recent years, there has been a wave of unionization in higher education and research in the U.S., so they have started to affiliate with many university unions as well. Which parent union to be affiliated with and whether to be affiliated with a parent union is decided by the members of the union through democratic voting based on a combination of considerations: the resources the parent union can provide to the local, whether the existing locals under the parent union is representative of academic workers’ interests, whether the parent union’s organizational structure and internal culture are conducive to the local’s organizing efforts, etc. Unions can change the parent union they are affiliated with through voting, or they can choose to form an independent union.

Strikes

What is a strike?

A strike is a coordinated work stoppage by workers to protest against low wages, unsafe working conditions, or unfair treatment in order to force the employer to meet the needs and demands of the workers. During a strike, university employees stop working as teachers or researchers, depending on the situation. Strikes can seriously disrupt normal teaching/administration work at universities, inform the university and local communities about our struggle, and attract media attention to schools.

Do we have to strike?

In the experience of the University of Michigan’s graduate student union, for example, graduate student workers were negotiating with the university for over four months before the 2023 strike. Prior to the negotiations, graduate student workers had researched the university’s financial situation and confirmed that the university could afford our demands. At the bargaining table, dozens of graduate students provided well-researched arguments for the necessity and rationality of each of our proposals, and hundreds of graduate students participated in numerous actions to communicate with the university about why we needed these proposals. This included picketing at several campus events, conducting work-in protests, and speaking directly to members of the Board of Regents. However, university administrators refused to move, even when it was financially viable. We chose to strike because the university refused to give graduate workers a fair contract. Striking is an option we would definitely consider as a last resort, but when all other communication and action strategies fail, striking is our last resort and the most effective tool we have to force the university to resolve the contract differences within a reasonable time frame, and therefore an option we had to consider at the time. A strike does not always happen, but the responsibility is on the university, who can always end the negotiations by offering us a fair contract.

What is the process for the union to launch a strike?

First, a majority of workers will sign a “strike pledge” indicating their willingness to strike. A supermajority of workers pledging to strike sends a message to the university that we are ready to do what it takes to win a strong contract. If the university continues to delay negotiations, we will hold a Strike Authorization Vote, which is a vote that grants the union the power to strike. There is no quorum requirement for the vote, but a high turnout and a supermajority vote will send the strongest signal to the university. After the Strike Authorization Vote passes, the union’s bargaining committee will decide whether and when to start the strike based on the progress of negotiations.

Are strikes legal?

Depending on your state and the university, a strike may or may not be legal. Employees in the private sector (including private universities) have the legal right to strike under the National Labor Relations Act⁴, and employees in these sectors cannot be fired for participating in a strike. In the public sector (including public universities), the situation depends on state law. For example, in New York and Michigan, it is illegal for public employees to strike, while in California, public employees can legally participate in strikes. But even in states where strikes are not legal, there are still examples of university employees successfully organizing strikes and winning negotiations, such as the five-month strike by graduate student workers at the University of Michigan in 2023. The University of Michigan is a public school, so it is illegal for graduate workers to strike, and graduate workers’ contracts also contain a “no strike” clause. Therefore, the strike violated both the graduate workers’ contracts and Michigan state law. Generally, a strike is only a civil offense, not a criminal offense. You will not be personally prosecuted for participating in a strike, nor will a strike usually have any legal consequences related to your immigration status or visa (consult your union representative for details). After university employees authorize the union to launch an illegal strike, the school can take legal measures to sanction the strike, but the school can only take legal measures against the union itself (which is legally distinct from union members). For example, the school can stop payment of union dues from the union members’ wages, have the court order the union to return to work, or sue the union for violating the terms of the contract, but these measures will only target union leadership, not general strike participants.

Legally, the university can fire workers who participate in illegal strikes. However, graduate workers are a highly specialized workforce that perform critical labor for the university’s operations, so if the number of strike participants is large enough, the university cannot fire all of us. Where would the university find the same number of skilled professionals to conduct teaching and research work? The University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) did fire some striking graduate students in 2020, but the number of strikers was small (less than 50) and it was a “wildcat strike” without a strike authorization vote.⁵ Even in this case, other graduate workers fought to get them reinstated, and eventually won.⁶

On the other hand, if the university chooses to sanction the strike through legal means instead of responding to the workers’ demands, it means that the university is using a legal system that is inherently unfair to workers to force university workers to accept unfair labor treatment, which will outrage the entire community and labor supporters across the U.S. For example, in the University of Michigan’s graduate worker strike, faculty and staff collectively called on the university to revoke the court injunction the university filed against the union. “Illegal” does not mean that the workers’ actions are unjust. On the contrary, we are using collective strikes to resist the unjust legal system itself.

Will striking affect my current or future visa?

International PhD and MS students in the U.S. usually enter and exit the country on an F1 student visa, which is only related to your student status, not your employment status. International student visas can only be revoked if the student is expelled from the school, but this is extremely rare and not related to strike action. No international graduate worker has ever had their visa revoked or restricted as a result of their involvement in union actions at a university. As mentioned above, in the case of a strike authorized by a union, even if the strike is illegal, any legal action taken by the university would only be against the union organization itself and not the rank-and-file workers. In the unlikely event that the university were to take legal action against individual participants in a strike – which has never happened before at any institution and may not be legally feasible – it would not constitute a criminal penalty, only a civil penalty, and would not have any impact on your current or future immigration status (whether you are currently in the U.S. or not). We are not aware of any international graduate student workers whose visa status has been affected by strikes, or who have been asked questions related to union participation or strikes at ports of entry (including international students who played prominent leadership roles in the graduate workers’ strike at the University of Michigan, and those who were prominently featured in the media during the strikes at Indiana University and the University of California, Santa Cruz).

For postdocs and other types of university employees on non-student visas, if you are participating in a legal strike, your current or future visa status will not be affected. If it is an illegal strike, please consult your union representative for specific details.

What do I do during a strike?

Teaching: You should stop teaching/grading assignments and submitting grades to the school. You can tell students why you are on strike, or you can ask students to participate in actions to pressure the university to end the strike.
Research: The basis of a research strike is that you should stop work that would have a direct impact on the university, but minimize the impact of the strike on personal academic progress. Each discipline or laboratory should discuss and agree on the best strike action plan based on the situation. For example, you can stop reporting research progress to funding providers, stop participating in lab meetings, stop participating in voluntary service and administrative work in the department like organizing recruitment, workshops and social events, refuse to attend academic seminars or give academic presentations, but still conduct necessary animal experiments or do academic reading and writing remotely. You can work with your lab colleagues to ask your supervisor (principal investigator) to put pressure on the university.
Coursework: For more junior doctoral students, if the course hasn’t been cancelled, you can continue to attend classes and complete course requirements.

Will I lose my wages during a strike?

Possibly. The university will likely suspend paychecks while workers are on strike, but workers will also be fighting for every possible contractual agreement during the strike to compensate for lost wages and additional medical expenses once the strike ends. In addition, during the strike, the union will use various sources to raise strike funds designed to support workers who experience financial hardship during the strike so that they are not forced to return to work due to financial pressure. This is a support fund to help in difficult times, but is not intended to replace lost wages for all workers. Graduate workers at Columbia University recovered their withheld wages during their strike through compensatory labor after their 2022 strike ended.⁷ Meanwhile, University of Michigan administration refused to pay back the wages withheld during their strike after it ended in 2023, so University of Michigan graduate workers organized to raise additional bonuses for graduate students in the new academic year to compensate the workers who lost their wages during the strike.⁸

How should I tell my advisor about the strike?

If it’s possible, you can tell your advisor that you are going on strike. You should discuss how to go on strike with other coworkers in your lab/office and act collectively. You can tell your advisor together that you are going on strike. If your advisor/collaborator is concerned about you joining the strike, you should tell them what the strike’s demands are, and reiterate that the university administration dragging their feet on these basic demands is why going on strike is your only option. If they are truly concerned, they should contact the department chair or provost and ask the university leadership to avoid or resolve the strike by conceding to their university employees’ demands.

References

Wikipedia, Right-to-work law. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-to-work_law ↩︎
Columbia University, 364 NLRB No. 90 (August 23, 2016). https://www.aaup.org/brief/columbia-university-364-nlrb-no-90-august-23-2016 ↩︎
Rogers, S. E., Eaton, A. E., & Voos, P. B. (2013). Effects of Unionization on Graduate Student Employees: Faculty-Student Relations, Academic Freedom, and Pay. ILR Review, 66(2), 487-510. https://doi.org/10.1177/001979391306600208 ↩︎
National Labor Relations Board, Right to strike and picket. https://www.nlrb.gov/about-nlrb/rights-we-protect/the-law/employees/right-to-strike-and-picket ↩︎
Wikipedia, Wildcat strike. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildcat_strike ↩︎
Lauren Kaori Gurley (August 11, 2020), UC Santa Cruz Reinstates 41 Graduate Students After Months-Long Strike. Vice. https://www.vice.com/en/article/uc-santa-cruz-reinstates-41-graduate-students-after-months-long-strike/ ↩︎
Joanna Lee-Brown and Izzy Plowright (November 28, 2022), A Tale of Two Strikes: Student Workers of Columbia Struggle Against Business Unionism, Spectre. https://spectrejournal.com/a-tale-of-two-strikes/ ↩︎
UMich GEO, 为罢工中失去工资的工人筹款：秋季奖金再分配FAQ. https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/FbWVAENHxn2of12AFmu7cw ↩︎

Stanford Graduate Workers Union, Strike FAQ. https://sgwu.us/strike-faq/
University of Iowa, COGS FAQ. https://cogs.org/cogs-faq
UMich GEO, GSI/GSSA罢工最早将于本周二启动——罢工FAQ. https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/X6Mssr_WgQl2ousXpxU0YA
UAW Multi-Unit Statewide Strike FAQ. https://www.fairucnow.org/strikefaq/

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