Northwestern University Graduate Workers reached five tentative agreements with administrators Thursday in their ongoing bargaining process for a new contract with the University.

NUGW reached tentative agreements on medical benefits, childcare and caregiving, commuter subsidies, and retirement benefits in its 14th bargaining session with the University. In addition, the University offered a multipurpose additional payment of $100 which graduate workers can choose to put toward commuter, transportation or healthcare costs.

Including the new developments, NUGW has reached tentative agreements on 29 of its 33 proposed articles since June 2023. After all sections of the contract have reached a tentative agreement status, NUGW members will vote to approve or reject the entire contract.

The negotiations come just three days after the graduate workers’ union launched a pledge to go on strike if the University does not meet its remaining contract demands. According to organizers, more than 1,000 graduate workers signed the pledge within 48 hours of its launch.

NUGW co-chair Esther Kamm said the union had been pushing for 100% vision and dental coverage in addition to the expansion of adoption assistance and senior adult dependent care resources to graduate workers — two key wins the bargaining committee secured Thursday. 

In addition, the tentative agreement reached Thursday allows graduate workers to claim TGS Graduate Student Childcare Grants for up to three children, as opposed to the previous limit of two children, and raises the benefit per child. In a survey organized by the Graduate Student and Postdoctoral Parent Peer Support Group last year, more than a quarter of graduate worker respondents reported spending over 30% of their monthly income on caregiving expenses.

Kamm said the strike pledge put significant pressure on the University to come to the table and take the union’s demands seriously.

“We know that they felt that pressure,” Kamm said. “And if they weren’t feeling the pressure, they wouldn’t have come back today with such significant movement on medical benefits and on benefits for parents and caregivers.”

The University also offered counter-proposals on compensation, international employee and tax assistance, tuition and fees, and infrastructure and accessibility in its Thursday bargaining session.

NUGW is pushing for a base stipend of $48,000 for standard teaching assistants — increasing annually to $52,416 by 2025 — which would mark a nearly 30% increase from the current base stipend. The University countered Thursday with an offer of $41,000 per year starting in September 2024, ​​with annual increases of about $1,000 through 2026; In November, the administration had previously offered a $38,808 base stipend with annual increases laid out until 2028.

“We want to recognize that the economic realities of grad workers across both campuses have been getting more and more strained, and many grad workers simply can’t wait until September to see economic relief,” Kamm said. “That’s why we started this compensation schedule in 2023. We also don’t want admin to have an incentive to drag out bargaining when we know that so many grad workers need a contract now.”

The University did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Twitter: @jacob_wendler

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