Duke Graduate Students Union Continues to Push for a Living Wage

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Good morning, readers.

It’s been just over a year since Duke graduate students voted to form a union.

In bargaining sessions with the university thus far, members of the Duke Graduate Students Union, or DGSU, have negotiated tentative agreements on about a dozen of their proposed contract articles, including on articles related to the reimbursement of travel expenses and transparency in the job assignment process.

But wage negotiations have been rocky, spurring DGSU members to stage a demonstration on West Campus last week. They were joined by members of the Union of Southern Service Workers, the Duke Faculty Union, and the UNC Chapel Hill and NC State graduate student unions.

“We watched our universities come together to protest university-funded genocide,” said Bryce Ross, a member of The Workers Union at UNC, referring to the pro-Palestine demonstrations on UNC’s campus this spring. Protestors demanded that local universities divest from products and companies that support Israel and end study abroad programs to the country, among other demands. “We have to capitalize on that unity to make waves for worker justice, too.”

After rallying at the Bryan Center Plaza, the group marched to the Allen Building, which houses Duke University president Vincent Price’s office, to deliver a living wage petition. Price wasn’t around at the time so they taped a scroll of the names of petition signatories to a banister nearby.

Track the status of the DGSU’s negotiations with the university here. And have a good Wednesday.

—Lena

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