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Boston University graduate students overwhelmingly vote to authorize strike

Graduate workers say the school has “failed to address” students’ needs during contract negotiations, which began last year.

Charles Krupa/Associated Press

By Emily Spatz

2 minutes to read

Unionized Boston University graduate workers voted to authorize a strike by an overwhelming majority after saying the school failed to meet their needs during negotiations, the union representing the students announced Tuesday night. 

Negotiations between the university and its union for graduate student workers, known as BUGWU, for the unions’ first contract began in 2023.

Graduate students at the university — who have been represented by SEIU Local 509 since 2022 — have been conducting a strike authorization vote since February 28. Voting closed Monday, and 90% of some 3,000 unionized workers cast a ballot in favor of authorizing the strike, BUGWU said in a statement Tuesday night. 

What are graduate workers at BU fighting for?

The union says BU has failed to meet their demands, which include increased wages, dental insurance coverage, and workload protections.

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Funding for graduate workers in various BU departments ranges between $25,000 to $45,000, meaning that “every single BU graduate student is being paid less than a living wage,” according to BUGWU . The cost of living for a single adult living in Boston is $46,918, according to MIT’s Living Wage Calculator. 

“It is so utterly corrupt that an R1 university sitting atop an 8-figure operational surplus and 9-figure endowment refuses to pay its workers — cutting-edge researchers and inspirational teachers — a wage that affords them adequate housing and sufficient nutrition,” said Joseph Guidry, a graduate worker at BU, in a statement on BUGWU’s Instagram. “ I still have not been able to see a dentist in my three years in Boston.”

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While the school offers dental discount programs, BUGWU said these discounts are “not sufficient” with workers’ current wages. 

Taylor Thomas, a graduate student worker at BU, said she had to receive “outside help” to cover the dental procedures she needed, which amount to more than $13,000. Thomas currently makes $23,000 a year, she said in another post on the group’s Instagram page.

What is BU saying?

The school has met with the union 14 times since the beginning of contract negotiations, Provost and Chief Academic Officer Kenneth Lutchen said in a statement March 6. Among other proposals, the school has offered an increase in stipends to doctoral students and a raise in their minimum wage from $15 to $18 for students paid hourly, according to the statement.  

“We have listened to our students’ concerns about cost of living, quality of life, and campus issues,” Lutchen said, adding that the school has suggested creating a dental insurance plan for graduate workers and adding dependents under 6 years old to the university’s student health insurance plan. 

“We believe this current package illustrates our deep concern for our students’ wellbeing and that we are listening to what our students are telling us,” the statement continued. 

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Lutchen said the school is hoping to avoid a graduate student strike, but that the school “must be ready” in case it happens. His update followed a March 5 negotiation meeting. 

“Should the union initiate a strike, we (the faculty and the administration) will need to ensure that the education of our students — undergraduate and graduate students — is not interrupted,” Lutchen wrote. 

Though BU says it has engaged in good faith bargaining and hopes to reach an agreement with workers, BUGWU have filed five complaints alleging unfair labor practices with the National Labor Relations Board since August, including two filed at the beginning of February. 

“We continue to listed to students and to bargain in good faith, and we are confident that we will be able to bridge our remaining differences,” Lutchen said. 

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