TLDR; Our bargaining committee reached a tentative agreement (TA) on the whole contract after a 12 hour mediated bargaining session yesterday. Join us for a Bargaining Town Hall on Friday 8/17 and Friday 8/25. More details about the ratification vote and on the details of the full agreement to come; see what was agreed to yesterday below. The rally for undergraduate first-year move-in day has been canceled in light of the TA.
Yesterday, our bargaining session went all day as we passed rounds of counters back and forth with the University. We reached a tentative agreement after 8pm last night. This resolved all outstanding issues and means we have a full tentative agreement on the whole contract. We will have a full copy of the TA’d contract properly written up prior to the ratification vote.
Summary of yesterday’s TA package:
- Compensation
| Minimum Compensation Effective 8/15/2023 | Minimum Compensation Effective 8/15/2024 | Minimum Compensation Effective 8/15/2025 | Minimum Compensation Effective 8/15/2026 | |
| Salaried 12 mo | $39,000 | $40,014 (2.6%) | $41,214 (3%) | $42,450 (3%) |
| Hourly admin and instructional workers | $18/hour | $18.33/hour | $18.66/hour | $19/hour |
| Hourly RA | $20/hour | $20.33/hour | $20.66/hour | $21/hour |
- Healthcare
- WPI pay 100% of premium for salaried GWs for individual plan and WPI pay twice the single premium for family coverage
- No reduction of benefit or increase costs for health insurance for life of contract without mutual agreement by Union and University
- Creation of joint Union and WPI taskforce to provide recommendation on plan design
- Union representation at the student advisory committee for health insurance
- No dental and vision premiums covered by WPI, voluntary/optional dental and vision coverage still available
- Fees
- Guarantee that no new fees or increase of fees for life of contract, excluding grad activities fee
- Parking and Transit
- Salaried GWs waiver for parking fee or reimbursement of WRTA semester pass up to the cost of parking fee
- Transportation to UMass Medical Center for work at no cost to GW
- Childcare
- No childcare fund
- If WPI creates benefits for other any other employees, they will be given to GWs
- Changing tables for Gateway, Sagamore and Unity
- 4 year contract duration
Read all articles from yesterday’s TA here. Please note: This represents all that was agreed upon during yesterday’s session, but not the entire collective bargaining agreement to be ratified.
We will be holding a Bargaining Town Hall on Friday, August 18 from 3:30-5pm on Zoom to discuss the TA and answer any questions. RSVP here to get the Zoom link. We will hold another Town Hall on Friday, August 25 3:30-5pm in Salisbury 305.
The next step in the process is for members to vote to ratify the whole tentative agreement. We will send out a separate ratification email to all graduate workers with more details, a copy of the full Tentative Agreement, and a link to the membership and dues authorization card, which must be completed in order to vote on the agreement itself. The ratification vote will kick off after Friday’sTown Hall and will remain open through Wednesday, August 30th at 11:59pm. The bargaining committee is presenting this agreement with the recommendation to vote yes, and we are committed to having open and honest discussions on why we are making this recommendation. We encourage every member to review the terms of the entire agreement in detail.
To that end, if you have questions about the TA before you vote and want to speak directly with a Bargaining Committee member ASAP, you can call or text us at (508) 859-0692. Alternatively, you can still send an email to wpi.gwu@gmail.com, although this may take us slightly longer to respond to.
In Solidarity,
Your WPI-GWU Bargaining Committee
Sabine Hahn, Andrew McReynolds, Abhinav Gandhi, Jake Scarponi, & Gabriela Rovi