Joining Together for a Better Worcester Polytechnic Institute!

Thank you for helping form our union, WPI-GWU. When a majority of us have signed cards choosing WPI-GWU as our Union, we will seek official recognition through a fair process to verify our majority support so we can start bargaining. This could happen through a voluntary process agreed-upon with WPI or through a neutral party such as the National Labor Relations Board. 

Collective bargaining means more rights and more power to shape our lives at WPI. Collectively we have more power to negotiate with WPI than we have as individuals. No one will be paying any dues or fees until graduate employees have democratically approved a contract with WPI.

Without a union:

• WPI unilaterally determines our working conditions, and can change them at any time without our consent.

With a union:

• We elect a bargaining committee that gathers input from student workers across campus.
• That bargaining committee negotiates a contract on equal footing with WPI administration.
• That contract can only be approved democratically, through a graduate employee vote.
• That contract determines our terms and conditions of employment and is binding and enforceable, usually through appeal to a neutral arbitrator.

Organizing Our Union!

   Without Collective Bargaining, we have seen our healthcare costs increase, our rent go up, and gone too long without a raise. With a union, we hope to bargain for increased wages, improvements to our healthcare, and protections from abuse, discrimination, and harassment. With a union, we will be given a democratic voice in our working conditions and we want our improvements to be protected in a union contract.