Proposal aimed to end strike with increased PhD stipends and childcare support
Hoping to bring an end to the five-month-long strike by the Boston University Graduate Workers Union (BUGWU), the University’s new leadership offered a contract proposal on Wednesday that includes a significant increase in stipend support for PhD students and additions to benefits, such as an increased childcare subsidy and 14 weeks of paid childcare leave for full-time stipended graduate workers.
“I hope the new package shows our students that we are listening, we value their contributions to BU, and that we want to reach a fair contract with BUGWU,” Gloria Waters, the University’s new provost and chief academic officer, wrote in a letter to faculty and staff.
I hope the new package shows our students that we are listening, we value their contributions to BU, and that we want to reach a fair contract with BUGWU.
“Our offer represents substantial movement in response to the concerns raised by BUGWU’s negotiating team over the past year of negotiations,” Waters wrote. “It puts us in line with our peers, and, at the same time, recognizes the constraints on the University budget.”
The “new and comprehensive” proposal commits to a minimum 12-month stipend of $45,000 to all PhD students within the University’s five-year funding guarantee.
The benefit for PhD students currently on 8-month contracts will be particularly significant, according to Waters. For instance, students who are now on 8-month contracts with stipends of $28,000 would receive 12-month contracts of $45,000—a 61 percent increase in their stipend support.
“I hope no matter what a student’s perspective is on what the University has to offer,” Waters says, “that they will communicate with their bargaining representatives so that all student voices can be represented in our final contract.”
The five-year contract proposal, presented by Waters at a negotiating session on Wednesday afternoon, also includes annual stipend increases of 3 percent per year, bringing the PhD minimum stipend rate to $50,647 in year five. Grad students paid at an hourly rate would see a new minimum of $20 per hour, also climbing 3 percent a year over the life of the contract.
The students in the BUGWU, which includes teaching assistants and teaching fellows, are paid for up to 20 hours of work per week. They spend additional time as students also fulfilling course requirements and doing dissertation research.
Negotiations with BUGWU, which represents more than 3,000 master’s, professional, and PhD graduate students, began in July 2023. Some members of the union walked off their jobs in March of this year to press for a new contract with increased stipends and better benefits, among other issues. The BU bargaining unit is part of SEIU Local 509, which represents human service workers and educators in Massachusetts.
“We remain focused on finding meaningful solutions to the issues graduate workers are facing at work,” the union said in a statement late Wednesday. “Our bargaining team and membership will be discussing this proposal but we have no other comment at this time.”
“Though I have appreciated the opportunity to work directly with our graduate student bargaining team, both sides of the bargaining table have missed opportunities to advance negotiations at different points throughout the last year,” says Sarah Hokanson (CAS’05), assistant vice president and assistant provost, research development and PhD and postdoctoral affairs. “A different approach to bargaining is necessary if we are going to reach agreement before the fall. I am glad our leadership is taking this critical step with an aggressive offer that meets the needs and demands of our graduate students.”
New benefits in the University proposal include an increase to 14 weeks of paid childcare leave for full-time stipended graduate students who are new parents, up from 8 weeks, along with a $3,500 per year childcare subsidy, up from $600.
The University will also create an annual “help fund” of $200,000 to support graduate students with a variety of emergency needs.
BU will continue to cover the tuition of all PhD students within the five-year funding guarantee, currently $64,000 annually, and will also continue to cover health insurance for PhD students with no premium share, now valued between $3,400 and $4,500 per year.
As part of the proposal, the University has offered to cover the cost of adding dependents through age six to the Student Health Services plan, as well as offering a $100 subsidy toward the purchase of dental insurance for each PhD student. The University has also offered commuting benefits to all bargaining unit members, including either a 50 percent MBTA subsidy or bicycle commuter reimbursement benefits.
“In putting this new and final proposal on the table, my goal is to get to a signed and ratified contract before the academic year begins,” Waters wrote.
“If we can reach agreement, our graduate students will get the benefits of the agreement soon after it is ratified. If we do not, the students will not see the benefits of the contract for the full academic year. I urged the union and its allies to join us, get the contract done, and move for a ratification vote on our proposal before the fall semester begins.”
And when negotiations conclude, there is more to come to advance graduate education at BU, administrators say.
“I am excited that our provost has committed to implement many of the recommendations from the Taskforce on the Future of PhD Education,” Hokanson says, “to ensure we are offering supportive and innovative training opportunities for our PhD students in the years to come.”
