Frequently Asked Questions

Not only have we won, we’ve won big. See our victories page for a more complete list. 

As workers at the university, our power comes from our ability to disrupt thousands of labor hours, whether that labor is in the classroom, lab, or archive. 

Those labor hours are what gives us leverage over the university. Withholding that labor forces the university to bargain or implement our demands because it would be more expensive to ignore us than to bargain. When we stand together as workers, it means that we can force the university to give us better pay, better working conditions, and stronger protections. That leverage through labor hours is also what protects us from retaliation: the university can’t afford to replace us en masse because our labor is highly skilled and specialized. 

We are safest and strongest together; that’s why we’re able to win huge victories

“Union recognition” means that IU agrees to negotiate over university policies that affect graduate workers with an elected negotiating committee of graduate workers. Without a union, we are individuals against the entire university. With a union, we leverage our collective power to negotiate higher standards for all. We win by building a powerful organization of active graduate workers across campus. Our ability to win depends on how united we are as graduate workers and how strong our union is.

Once we win union recognition, union members will elect a bargaining committee that will survey all union members and bring their priorities to the bargaining table.

Our current platform identifies the following priority areas:

• Cost of living increases
• Fair work & degree expectations
• Fairness for international graduate workers
• Expanded medical & parental benefits
• Protect higher education

See our Platform!

Despite this, the IU Administration has failed to compensate graduate employees fairly. Although the University boasts a $3.54 billion endowment and an enormously successful bicentennial fundraising drive, the majority of graduate employees at IU did not receive a raise between 2014 and 2020. Over this same period, student fees and the cost of living in Bloomington skyrocketed. This means graduate workers took an effective pay cut for over six years.

Since 2019, graduate workers have organized, petitioned, marched, and engaged in a historic fee strike, calling for safe and equitable working conditions. The IU administration refused to make any improvements and even attempted to hide their own report documenting our dire conditions. IU works because we do. By organizing a graduate worker union, we secure the power to bring our issues as workers to the university and negotiate with them as equals.

Graduate unions have become a mark of quality at higher educational institutions. IU’s refusal to recognize or negotiate fairly with our union hinders IUB’s ability to recruit and retain talented graduate and undergraduate students, faculty, and staff.

The city of Bloomington and state of Indiana also suffer when one of its largest employers—IU—keeps workers at below living wages, hindering our ability to engage fully in the community and local economy.

If you’re a graduate worker, here’s what you can do:

• Join the union by signing a union card
• Learn about our platform and sign up for our newsletter
• Attend union-wide meetings and reach out to your Department Organizers
• Become a Department Organizer
• Pay voluntary dues, which are used for informational materials and events.

Graduate workers who are IGWC members vote on our platform and actions and elect our Coordinating Committee, which represents graduate workers in negotiations with the IU Administration. Our national union affiliate, the United Electrical Workers, provides experienced union negotiators to assist us.

International students have the right to freely express their views on issues concerning their employment at IU without fear for their visa status. This right is guaranteed by university policy and the laws and constitution of the United States.

IU’s policy on academic freedom reads: “Academic freedom includes the freedom to express views on matters having to do with the university and its policies, and on issues of public interest generally.” The US Department of State: “With few exceptions, you have the right to join together with your coworkers to ask your employer to improve your wages or working conditions.” And that “you have this right regardless of your immigration status. Your employer cannot take action against you for asserting your rights.”

The United States Constitution guarantees certain rights to everyone staying in the country. Non-US citizens in the United States (such as international scholars and students) have the right to the same constitutional protections as US citizens. All employees (both citizen and non-citizen) are protected against discrimination on the grounds of race, religion, and national origin in their workplace.

In the last 30 years of graduate employee organizing, there has been no case of retaliation against international graduate employees.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of national origin, race, religion, and sex. Regardless of immigration status, all employees have the right to demand workplace protections. The US Department of Labor further explains that “U.S. laws generally prohibit employers from retaliating against workers for exercising their workplace rights, regardless of the workers’ immigration status.” It is therefore unlawful for employers to retaliate against workers who demand and exert their federally-protected rights, regardless of immigration status.

With all of this context in mind, as graduate workers, we recognize that SAA appointments are often tied to tuition waivers and health insurance, which allow many international graduate students to attend IU. We believe addressing work-related concerns within a large group provides more protection than organizing alone. If any of our members are targeted or retaliated against, we are prepared to respond and organize in their support. There is strength in numbers!

If you are an international student and you want to get involved but are concerned about doing so, reach out!

With a union, graduate workers negotiate pay and benefits at the campus level and can secure a neutral grievance procedure.

IU currently places the burden on departments to determine and allocate funding and to create individual grievance procedures. This increases the likelihood of tension between graduate workers and their advisors. A union resolves both issues and reduces those as potential tensions.

IU policy HR 12-20 states that IU employees “have the right, freely and without fear of penalty or reprisal, to form, join and assist any lawful employee organization, or to refrain from any such activity.”

The IGWC has been active since 2020. While the IU Administration has used tactics to fight against our demands for better pay and better working conditions for graduate workers, they have never retaliated against individual graduate workers.

Union dues are a small percent (typically 1% to 2%) of an employee’s pay, which fund the cost of organizing materials and activities. This small amount is overwhelmingly offset by the increases in pay and benefits that unionization secures.

When we have formal union recognition, members will be asked to pay union dues so that our time and energy can focus on fighting for better working conditions, instead of fundraising. Right now, we ask members to voluntarily pay dues that are 1.6% of their monthly pay. Please become a voluntary dues paying member!

Signing a union card is a way to ask for collective bargaining representation by the IGWC. When we hit a majority of all graduate workers, we will bring in a third-party auditor to confirm that our cards are real enrolled students at IU. Then we will demand a union election from the IU administration using the auditors report. We will not submit names to IU administration until they agree to hold a fair union election, which would include non-retaliation and a commitment to keep names internal to IU.

All public sector employees, regardless of the state, are not covered by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Places like Illinois have an NLRB equivalent for the public sector (e.g., the Illinois Labor Relations Board). The state of Indiana does not have a statewide, public sector labor board. Indiana state law prohibits public sector employees from organizing (IN Code § 4-15-17-4 [2022]), but there are exclusions to that law, including IU employees, public school teachers, and some other groups, like police. Public school teachers and police each have separate labor relations boards which govern their union and bargaining rights (IEERB). IU doesn’t have a labor relations board; it just has its own policy.

IU has said that their policy, which governs organizing and bargaining at IU, does not apply to its graduate workers. This means that IU, by its own admission, knowingly and intentionally, has excluded 2,500 workers from the fundamental right to organize and bargain for better wages.

Though our organizing and bargaining rights are governed by IU, we are still covered by the laws of Indiana’s Department of Labor (IC 22). That means we have some protections: For example, it is a misdemeanor in Indiana for a manager to interfere with a union drive, and that includes IGWC union drives (IC 22-7-1-3).

The same law which prohibits public employees in Indiana from organizing or having bargaining rights also states that public sector employees cannot strike. But again, as IU employees, we are excluded from this law. There is therefore no legal prohibition on striking or otherwise organizing for a union by IU employees, including graduate workers.

IU claims that we are primarily students and not workers. However, graduate workers are very clearly employees under SAA contracts.