I’m Megan Cassingham, a 4th year PhD candidate in Chemistry. I’m excited to share with you how yesterday’s bargaining session went.
The bargaining team was able to achieve two Tentative Agreements (TAs) with USC Administration, on Travel and Posting. Importantly, Graduate Student Workers won new protections on travel: GSWs cannot be forced to pay for work-related travel and must be reimbursed in a timely manner for any out-of-pocket travel-related expenses. The bargaining team also introduced five new articles on union rights, which you can find more details on in both the bargaining portal and last week’s email from Ashley Lehr.
The next bargaining session is this coming Tuesday, June 6th (RSVP here). In this session, we hope to hear back from USC administration on proposals that are still outstanding, and we also plan to introduce a handful of articles related to worker benefits.
Bargaining over three key equity-related articles (Nondiscrimination, Immigration & Work Authorization, and Reasonable Accommodations) will begin on June 15th. This day, coming up in less than two weeks, will be a seminal moment for us Graduate Student Workers; we have the chance to win historic protections that would make USC a stronger and more equitable place to work and study. Sign up to attend this bargaining session here; the more turnout we get, the stronger a message we send to USC administration that we’re prepared to fight for a more equitable workplace. It is going to take cross-campus power to win, so sign up now to get involved in the union.
In solidarity,
Megan Cassingham, Chemistry