Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | September 19, 2022 | Worcester Business Journal 13 E D U C A T I O N & C A R E E R G U I D E F O C U S er pay and for 100% of their members' health insurance to be covered by the school. On Sept. 12, the union members authorized a strike if the union's bargain- ing team deems it necessary. At Clark, the graduate student stipends can range from $15,000 to $24,000 depending on the job and whether the worker is a teaching assistant or research assis- tant, according to Westgard-Cruice and Lauren Ashley Bradford, a doctoral student in the university's department of Holo- caust and Genocide Studies. is pay is significantly below the $46,480 in annual salary a renter needs to afford a fair-market, one-bedroom apartment in Worcester, according to the National Low Income Housing Coali- tion's 2022 Out of Reach report. Because of the high cost of living, combined with low pay, graduate student unionization is a diversity, equity, and inclusion issue, said Bradford. People who come from privileged backgrounds might have access to outside sources of income, like family, while they complete their education, whereas people without access to outside funding may not choose to pursue advanced education because of the financial hardship. WPI grad student union Across town at Worcester Polytech- nic Institute, graduate students are experiencing similar difficulties, and are similarly seeking to organize, said Sabine Hahn, a fih-year PhD stu- dent in the biology and biotechnology department, and Andrew McReynolds, a second-year PhD student in the Department of Learning Sciences & Technology. e WPI Graduate Worker Union, which is supported by the United Auto Workers, intends to vote for full union- ization to be recognized by the NLRB before the end of the fall semester. McReynolds and Hahn said the WPI administration has been meeting with the union to talk about issues. "Graduate students are an important part of the WPI community, and as a university committed to fostering a supportive and respectful learning and working environment, we look forward to listening, learning, and discussing related matters with them," WPI said in a statement emailed to WBJ. is movement to form a union at WPI started during the COVID pan- demic in 2020 when a change in health insurance le the workers with a $550 bill for what they felt was a lower-qual- ity plan, McReynolds said. ey were also charged a $195 fee for the school to provide them with testing and pro- tective supplies during the pandemic required for them to be on campus during the pandemic. e first victory for the group came in spring 2021 when it advocated against the COVID fee and the school waived it. Grad student workers at WPI receive a nine-month stipend of $24,345. An apprenticeship Not everyone is supportive of grad students' effort to unionize, said Tanjeem. Opponents view graduate work as a form of apprenticeship, and Westgard-Cruice and Bradford said at Clark there is an attitude that graduate students must pay their dues. e Clark graduate students are forming a union, in part, in order to break the pattern of one generation feeling they had to suffer and so must the next, said Westgard- Cruice. At WPI, Hahn and McReynolds find younger faculty especially supportive of their efforts to organize. e union has received advice and support from the American Association of University Professors chapter at WPI. Because of a 1980 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, National Labor Relations Board v. Yeshiva University, faculty at private universities can not organize. e AAUP is an advocacy group supporting academic professionals. On Aug. 15, the Teamsters Local 170 filed a charge of unfair labor practices against Clark University on behalf of the grad students, stating that in response to unionization, the university had reneged on a promise to provide union employees with a full, 100% health insurance subsidy. It also stated that the university has refused to discuss wages and other economic items such as paid leave and insurance. WBJ obtained a copy of the complaint through a Freedom of Information Act request from the NLRB. Clark University administration did not respond to requests to speak about the union, nor about the strike vote. Westgard-Cruice and Bradford said Clark is going against its strategic goals in not wanting to pay graduate student workers a living wage. ey believe that the university will lose out on talent from all backgrounds that simply can't afford to live while studying. About three-quarters of classes are taught by adjunct faculty including graduate workers, making graduate students a key pool of labor for universities, said Tanjeem. e unionized students are working to receive what they feel is fair pay for their labor. "We do love our jobs. We just want to make ends meet while doing the job," Hahn said. Andrew McReynolds, PhD student at WPI Sabine Hahn, PhD student at WPI $94,570 Grad student salaries, by the numbers High end of average graduate student workers stipends at Clark University Income needed to afford a median one-bedroom apartment in Worcester Annual salary for a history teacher, postsecondary, in the Worcester metropolitan area as of May 2021 $25,000 $46,480 Sources: Clark Univeristy Graduate Workers Union, National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach Report, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics W PHOTO | TIMOTHY DOYLE

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