Frequently Asked Questions
If you have a question that isn’t answered here, please contact us or get in touch with a TRU steward in your department!
What is TRU-UE and what is a graduate worker union?
What is TRU-UE?
We are a union of graduate student workers at JHU known as Teachers and Researchers United-United Electrical Workers (TRU-UE). We are made up of over 3,000 members from departments across campus who perform teaching and research labor at Johns Hopkins. Grad workers at JHU organized our union in 2023.
We believe that many issues individual graduate students face at the university can best be solved through collective improvements that we organize for and negotiate and solidify through a contract with the university. We are currently working under our first contract.
Why do we need a graduate student union?
A union gives us a seat at the table, allowing for graduate student workers to negotiate collectively and ensure that everybody benefits from these improvements regardless of department and immigration status. Through organizing and collective bargaining our graduate student union secured better research conditions for grads across the university, including but not limited to:
- Living Wages for All
- Guaranteed On-Time Payment
- Improved Support for International Students
- Safe and Reliable Transportation & Workspaces
- Effective Grievance Procedures
- A Commitment to the City of Baltimore
You can read our full contract here or a summary of our contract at bit.ly/tru-summary.
How does having a union help my research?
We formed a graduate worker union to remove barriers to research at JHU. We need reliable access to the tools that allow us to do our research, such as equipment for performing work, reliable transportation options to get to work, and safe buildings to perform that research. A living wage also allows grad workers to focus on our research without being burdened by concerns about us having enough to cover our bills. Our working conditions are our research conditions and improving both are necessary to remove the barriers we face and allow our research to thrive.
Why can’t we secure these improvements with the existing university mechanisms?
Graduate workers over many years attempted to secure these improvements through the existing channels, including spending our time and energy in our department-level advocacy groups, on various committees with administrators, and within the Graduate Representative Organization, Graduate Student Association, Student Assembly, etc. Our experience with these institutional mechanisms is the reason we knew that we must pursue unionization. Many graduate students on these committees had their ideas stalled, were told they’re asking for too much, and were given an endless list of other excuses for why JHU would not grant us what we needed to conduct research effectively and live dignified lives. Without a union, the university has the final say for all changes to our research conditions. It is only through a union that we claim that power back as we do the work that makes Hopkins run!
What have other graduate student unions been able to win?
Like us, graduate workers at other institutions have successfully negotiated a variety of workplace improvements: better wages and benefits, increased access to workspace/materials, establishing fair processes for stopping sexual harassment, racial discrimination, and microaggressions; and guaranteed short and long-term leaves.
Read more details about what graduate student unions have been able to win:
- Compilations of some grad union wins can be found here and here.
- MIT-GSU’s bargaining progress can be tracked on their website.
- Harvard’s graduate student union secured major wins in their latest contract.
- Columbia secured their first union contract which laid out significant improvements to their research conditions!
How did we form a graduate student union?
There are four basic steps in building a graduate student union.
- Build an Organizing Committee
- Collect Union Cards and submit petition to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)
- Once the petition is accepted, turn up to the polls for the union election
- Negotiate a contract that must be ratified by the majority of grad students at JHU.
To learn more about the NLRB process, click here.
Our Contract
What is our union contract?
Our collective bargaining agreement, or contract, is a legally binding document negotiated between JHU PhD workers and the university as our employer that creates required standards for compensation, benefits, and working conditions. The bargaining process is legally protected and the employer is required to abide by the terms of the contract.
Our union contract covers our wages, hours, working conditions, and other issues. It sets minimum levels of compensation, limits on required work hours, and other needs that graduate workers negotiated collectively! We are currently working under our first contract. Grad workers at JHU organized our union in 2023.
Who is covered by our contact?
All graduate students enrolled in University PhD programs who are paid by JHU are included in the “bargaining unit” of our union and are covered by our contract, including teaching assistants, research assistants, and fellows.
Our unit currently excludes all other employees, undergraduate students, graduate students in Masters programs, graduate students not seeking Johns Hopkins degrees, doctoral students paid only through external funding, clerical workers, managers, guards and supervisors. Specific exclusions are listed in the Recognition article of our contract.
Where can I learn about my rights, benefits, and protections under the contract?
You can read a summary of our contract at bit.ly/tru-summary or read our full contract here. If you have any questions, reach out to a steward in your department/division or email us at info@trujhu.org.
Do I have to log my hours?
Nope! If you do begin a grievance, it might be useful to log your hours, but the union is not attempting to require you to log your hours.
How do we define what our job is?
The union’s contract does not define exactly what you are responsible for as a student, researcher, or teacher. The contract does set guidelines so that when the administration offers you a job, they must be up front and transparent about the work you’re responsible for, how much you’re paid, and provide you with the necessary resources to complete the tasks assigned. Anything within this counts towards the 20-hour work week.
Any work that is not on the contract you agree to is not your job, and the university cannot ask you to do it.
Bargaining
What is bargaining?
Bargaining is the process by which a union negotiates a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with their employer to establish, enshrine, and improve protections, benefits, and working conditions for the employees who are members of the union. When union members negotiate following (successor) contracts, they bargain for improvements to the contracts they’ve negotiated in the past.
What happens when our contract expires?
According to Article 29 of our CBA, our union contract expires June 30, 2027. If we want to “go to the table” and bargain for a new contract, we must give the university a notice no fewer than 90 days before that date. JHU may also notify us that they want to bargain, even if we choose not to notify them. If we negotiate a new contract, we would need to do so by the time our current contract expires in order for our next contract to cover the period starting July 1, 2027. Most union contracts have 3-year terms.
What happens if we don’t want to bargain?
Our contract would roll over for a year if neither TRU or JHU sent the other party a notice to negotiate. Most unions do not allow their contracts to roll over without negotiating improvements to the current contract. If there are no negotiations, the status quo of the contract would stay in place, including no pay raises for the year. We would lose an opportunity to negotiate over issues that are important to our members, like full funding until degree completion, international worker protections, pay raises, better benefits, and higher job security. Additionally, both parties have the right to send a bargaining notice – the employer or the union, so JHU could send us a request to bargain even if we decide to not send them one.
What happens if the union doesn’t plan to negotiate, but JHU sends a bargaining notice?
If the university sends TRU a bargaining notice shortly before the contract expires, and the union had not planned to negotiate, the union would be underprepared for negotiations and likely unable to negotiate a strong contract. Bargaining takes extensive preparation and communication prior to getting to the table with the employer.
What does the TRU bargaining process look like?
First, the members will vote at the upcoming September General Membership Meeting (GMM) on whether to extend our current contract, keeping everything (including our wages) the same, or to go back to the bargaining table to fight for a second contract. If we vote to extend the contract, we will still have to bargain a new contract if the university sends TRU a bargaining notice. If we vote to begin the bargaining process, the union will survey its members to determine bargaining priorities. The members will elect a Bargaining Committee (BC) who interfaces with management to bargain the details of a new CBA.
The Contract Action Team (CAT), composed of any union members who want to organize for a strong contract, will begin organizing. The bargaining committee will write draft bargaining proposals, and will bring the proposals to the membership for approval before presenting the proposals to JHU management. Bargaining begins with non-economic proposals (such as protection from unjust academic discipline), followed by economic proposals (such as wage increases), which will also be ratified by membership.
Progress at bargaining is made through the strength of member organization more than through reasonable arguments at the bargaining table. If the Union isn’t satisfied with the progress of negotiations, members need to organize to pressure JHU. We pressure our employer through acting collectively, which could include petitions, rallies, testimonials, or withholding our labor through a strike. At the end of negotiations, the union will present the tentative agreement to the members for final ratification.
How do negotiations work?
The collective bargaining process involves negotiating terms and conditions of employment between the employer (JHU) and the Union’s Bargaining Committee (BC). Both parties make proposals on subjects such as compensation and benefits, work expectations, job security, etc. Through a series of negotiation meetings, both parties come to an agreement in the form of a contract. Union proposals are based on the demands of graduate workers as a whole, and come from surveys, walkthroughs and Contract Action Team (CAT) meetings. Once bargaining is completed, all Union members will vote on whether to accept the contract. We can win whatever we are organized to take.
Who negotiates with JHU from the union?
Union members elect a bargaining committee composed of members representing all divisions. The exact number is up to the TRU Central Coordinating Committee (CCC) and will be decided in advance of the election. The Bargaining Committee (BC) serves as an official representative of grad workers during collective bargaining with the university. The BC is responsible for preparing and presenting contract proposals that address graduate workers’ most pressing concerns, and negotiating contract details with the university. Throughout this process, the BC works closely with TRU-UE’s Contract Action Team (CAT), to keep the thousands of graduate workers across the university engaged in the process of setting bargaining priorities and mobilizing to win improvements to our working conditions! Bargaining is a collective process, and the more engaged all union members are in the process, the stronger our contract.
Can we lose what we won in the first contract?
JHU can make any proposal it chooses during bargaining, as can the Union. It is common for employers to propose concessions to some provisions of a contract. The Union’s job during negotiations is to fight off any concessionary proposals, and to win the Union’s demands for improvements.
Will we make improvements in our new contract?
We will make gains if we are united, organized, and we fight for what we need. JHU doesn’t agree to our proposals out of the goodness of its heart. The administration agrees to our proposals when we show them that we will not back down until they meet our demands.
Joining Teachers and Researchers United – UE (TRU-UE)
I’m interested in getting involved, where do I start?
Great! First, sign your union card here. To get in touch with an organizer in your department, reach out to your representative here or send us an email at info@trujhu.org so we can tell you more about the campaign and answer any additional questions you have! We have graduate student workers performing lab/office walkthroughs talking to people in departments across the university, participating in various committees, and chatting one on one with their colleagues about building a grad student union that works for all of us!
How do I become a member of TRU-UE Local 197?
To become a member of the Union, you must sign a membership card and pay monthly membership dues. The easiest way to do this is to fill out a digital membership/dues authorization form. You must be a member to participate in union meetings and votes and otherwise decide how your union is run.
What does signing a union card mean?
Signing your union card means you want to become a member of Teachers and Researchers United (TRU-UE), the union for all graduate student workers at JHU. Signing your card means that you stand with your colleagues in demanding Hopkins respect our contract and the things we won through it together: a living wage for all, guaranteed on-time payment, improved support for international students, safe and reliable facilities & transportation, fair grievance procedures, and a commitment to the city of Baltimore. Card signers participate in our union’s democratic processes, from electing our Central Coordinating Committee to deciding how we run out union.
Will I ever have to go on strike?
As long as JHU bargains with us in good faith, we will not have to go on strike. A key motivation in having a majority of graduate student workers signing union cards is that such a show of solidarity encourages JHU to recognize our union without contest. In that case, we would not need to go on strike. Half of all private university graduate student unions have never had to authorize a strike.
At the same time, it is important to recognize that our labor is our most powerful bargaining chip. Through our labor in research, teaching, and other activities, we generate significant value to JHU. We can send a powerful message to JHU if we withhold that labor: JHU works because we do. Additionally, strikes can vary in form and specific strikes around teaching and other services, rather than research activities, can be a critical way of demonstrating the amount of labor we put into the University. The decision to strike is never made lightly. A strike requires a supermajority vote of all grad-workers (this is called a strike authorization vote). This means a supermajority of graduate student workers have decided that JHU is not negotiating in good faith with our union and a strike is necessary. Our union will never require any worker to strike, but if we decide to strike, we are most powerful when we stand united.
Won’t being involved in TRU’s efforts harm my relationship with my advisor/PI?
We built a union and are still organizing to remove barriers to conducting our research! Removing these barriers will allow us to get more done by improving the conditions we do our work under. It is for exactly this reason that the advisor-mentee relationship should remain unchanged even as we, the union, make efforts to improve our working conditions. In addition, our contract includes effective grievance procedures to resolve disputes between advisors and mentees, as well as guaranteed vacation time, sick time, and reasonable work hours so graduate workers are able to maintain a healthy work-life balance that allows us to thrive!
Questions about union dues
What are union dues?
Dues fund a strong union that can win better wages, benefits, and working conditions. Union dues go directly to TRU-UE Local 197 and the UE national and regional unions to fund the training, support, materials, staff and other resources we need to maintain an independent, democratic, rank-and-file union.
How much are union dues for TRU-UE Local 197?
Union dues are 1.44% of our gross compensation. All research assistants, teaching assistants, and fellows enrolled in JHU PhD programs who receive the full benefits and protections of the contract are required to contribute financially to the union. The vast majority of grad workers choose to pay dues as union members with voting privileges. Our union sets the amount for dues at 1.44% of our pay.
What are dues collected by TRU-UE used for?
Two-thirds (⅔) of collected dues go to UE national, who have helped us organize and bargain our contract. UE uses these dues to support organizing at other workplaces as well as for resources for UE locals such as access to a labor lawyer. The remaining one-third (⅓) of dues will remain with us at TRU. While it will ultimately be up to our membership to decide what we use dues for, similar locals have set up hardship funds, rented office space, and are saving for future strike funds.
Do I have to pay dues?
If you are covered by our contract, you can either become a member of TRU-UE Local 197 and pay dues or, if you choose not to become a member, pay an agency fee to the Union. This fee, which is authorized by federal law, is equivalent to union dues and covers your fair share of supporting our effort to bargain collectively with our employer and improve and defend our working conditions. Non-member fee-payers forego all rights and benefits of union membership. Non-members can sign up to pay monthly fees through payroll deduction here.
Importantly, becoming a member of the union gives you the right to vote in union elections, run for union officer and steward positions, vote at General Membership Meetings (GMMs), and participate in the decision-making and democracy of our union. Only union members are eligible to vote. We strongly encourage all Hopkins PhD workers to become active members in our union!
How can I pay my dues?
The most convenient way to pay dues is by signing up for payroll deduction using the digital membership/dues authorization form. By filling out this form, your dues will automatically be deducted from your paycheck and forwarded to the Union.
If you would prefer not to use this convenient method of automatic payment, you may pay your dues directly to TRU-UE Local 197 on a monthly basis.
I have questions about union membership, dues, or agency fees. Who should I ask?
You can send us an email at info@trujhu.org.
Know Your Rights
Who is allowed to participate in a union?
If you are receiving a paycheck from JHU in exchange for work related to research assistantships or teaching assistantships, you are a worker and therefore eligible to be part of TRU. Most broadly, this includes anyone who is currently working as a graduate student (PhD) in one of the divisions of JHU (including Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, Whiting School of Engineering, Bloomberg School of Public Health, School of Medicine, School of Nursing and School of Education). If you have questions about the legal constraints on union eligibility, please reach out!
Are international students eligible to be in a union?
YES! International workers enjoy the same legal rights to participate in organizing efforts as citizens/legal residents. Visa requirements in no way compromise your right to join a graduate advocacy group for your U.S. workplace. International student workers have participated in organizing graduate unions across the U.S in great numbers, including within TRU already. Any threat that organizing for a union could compromise legal status is not only wrong, it is illegal! For more information on international student workers and their rights to unionize, please see our page for international grad workers.
Can the university retaliate against me for being involved in a union?
NO! Any form of retaliation for union activity/involvement is illegal per the National Labor Relations Act and is violation of our contract. Graduate student workers have the right to support and participate in union organizing at work. The university cannot fire, discipline, or otherwise discriminate against you in any way. Additionally, you cannot be asked about your opinion on support or whether you are participating in TRU. Further, you cannot be threatened with any changes to your compensation, benefits, or other conditions for participation in a union.
Other Questions
I have more questions, how can I get them answered?
Great! We have organizers and stewards in almost every department and division across the university, so there’s probably someone you know who’d be happy to talk more about TRU with you and any of your questions, issues, or concerns.
Contact a steward in your department or division to get your questions answered or just email us at info@trujhu.org with your name, and someone will be in touch soon!