The Northwestern University Graduate Workers launched a pledge Monday to strike if the University does not meet its remaining contract demands. The meeting had record-high attendance, with more than 1,000 graduate workers from the Evanston and Chicago campuses joining in person and over Zoom, organizers told The Daily.

After 13 bargaining sessions held since June 2023, the union and the University have reached tentative agreements on 24 of NUGW’s 32 proposed articles. However, NUGW’s core demands — including an increased stipend, comprehensive healthcare and financial support for international workers — are still on the table. Members have expressed frustration with the pace of negotiation after repeated meeting cancellations by the University.

The University did not immediately respond to The Daily’s request for comment on the strike pledge.

Kavi Chintam, a 5th-year Ph.D. candidate in chemical and biological engineering and NUGW co-chair, said a strike is not something graduate workers take lightly.

“We have gotten to a point of this contract fight where right now, it’s really a lot of pushing paper back and forth,” Chintam said. “(Administrators) aren’t moving, and they won’t move until we do something serious and create a sense of crisis for the administration.”

At Monday’s NUGW meeting, international students, parents and other members spoke about their experiences as graduate students and specified why they are willing to strike. Ruoxi Zhu, a fifth-year Ph.D. candidate in electrical engineering, spoke about his experience as an international student from China. He said international graduate students need extra support from the University to cover travel, visas and housing costs even before they receive their first paycheck.

Zhu said testimonials from graduate student parents moved him.

“They have to have money to support their family, but they’re not getting enough,” Zhu said. “That was very emotional for me. Even though I’m not a husband, I’m not a father either, I can feel the disappointment, the hardness, of being in that position.”

Peter Cummings, a third-year Ph.D. candidate in psychiatry and behavioral sciences and a NUGW bargaining committee member, said the testimonials shared at Monday’s meeting were the result of organizing efforts across both campuses.

“That was the electric moment of the night — listening to speaker after speaker after speaker confirm that they were ready to sign the pledge and that they knew that these demands were going to be life-changing for them,” Cummings said.

NUGW has two remaining bargaining sessions scheduled for Thursday and Feb. 21. Leading up to Thursday’s meeting, Chintam said members are working to garner strike pledge signatures using walk-throughs, phone banking and flyers. She said NUGW won’t release the number of signatures until at least Thursday, but organizers are hoping for a supermajority of support within the union.

Chintam said she hopes the strike pledge will enact transformational change at NU.

“This work is not only going to benefit grad workers, it’s going to benefit undergrads as well because our working conditions are their learning conditions,” Chintam said.

Chintam added that strike pledges have been effective at other universities. After more than 900 graduate workers at the University of Oregon signed a strike pledge, the union reached a tentative agreement with the university on Jan. 15, two days before the strike was set to begin. The union ratified the new contract Friday. 

A bargaining committee member of the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation, the graduate workers union at the University of Oregon, spoke at Monday’s NUGW meeting about the sacrifices workers make to see success in negotiations. 

Chintam said forgoing pay during a potential strike would be difficult for many graduate workers who don’t have adequate savings. She said if it comes to it, members plan to support each other by collecting a hardship fund.

“We don’t want to strike, and we know a strike will harm a lot of people,” Zhu said. “There is a risk, but if Northwestern keeps pushing away our reasonable demands, we have to do that.”

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