After the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled in 2016 that graduate workers at private universities have the right to unionize, a group of grad workers concerned about the working conditions came together as Vanderbilt Graduate Workers United (VGWU) to begin the process of forming a union.

Graduate workers are the backbone of Vanderbilt's research and teaching missions - they perform the bulk of teaching and research. But too many of them live with financial insecurity, inconsistent health benefits, and a lack of protections against harassment and discrimination.

We are proud to stand with them as they file for their union, and we will have their back every step of the way as they hold an election and move towards a first contract.

• VGWU began organizing around grad worker issues, helping to pass a Mental Health Bill of Rights. This pressured the admin to commit serious resources to the mental well-being of its grad workers for the first time. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit campus, Vanderbilt administration’s flurry of actions (and inactions) were taken without serious consideration of the needs of graduate workers, proving to even more of us that we had no choice but to organize for ourselves to win the safe and fair working conditions we deserve.
  

• Since then, we’ve circulated petitions signed by thousands of grad workers calling for dental and vision coverage as well as higher stipends for all PhD students.
  

• We’ve seen our organizing permanently change the climate on campus, and university administration cave to some of our demands.

• We have more work to do, and forming a union is the best way to make progress, as we’ve seen from our peers across the country who have come before us and won significant improvements in pay, healthcare, job security, and much more. In fact, the UAW represents roughly 120,000 academic workers across the country.

• It’s exciting to be part of a wave of academic organizing that has swept the nation, and it’s also exciting to be standing shoulder to shoulder with the workers in Chattanooga who assemble electric vehicles—workers who are helping to decarbonize our economy have the power to win fair pay and good conditions, just like many academic workers who are doing basic research to support our society’s transition to a sustainable economy.

All workers deserve the right to organize. We support Vanderbilt Graduate Workers United and join them in their efforts to win a collective voice and justice.