June 20th, 2024
Sabine vs The Machine
UPDATE: As of Monday, June 17th, TRU-UE has reached a settlement with the University administration ensuring full-time appointments including full funding at $47,000 for all 6th year graduate workers in KSAS with full-time residency status for AY 2024-25!
Last week, multiple departments stated they would require graduate workers to work an additional 20 hours per week on top of your full-time teaching, research, and dissertation duties. This blatant breach of contract was met with a class action grievance which held its hearing this Wednesday, June 12, 2024 at the School of Public Health. Over 120 members joined the hearing and made their voices heard, demanded fair contract implementation, and showed Hopkin that our work, is work!
See what we are fighting for:
Sociology
- Previous guaranteed funding is being revoked for all 6+ year graduate workers
Population, family, and reproductive health
- Graduate workers are being required to work an additional 20 hours per week on top of their full-time commitments
SChool of medicine
- Graduate workers are being told they will not be paid for thesis-related work
- Graduate workers are being asked to take on additional projects on top of their full-time work in order to be paid
Other departments applying the same misimplementations of your contract:
- Economic
- Political Science
- School of Nursing
- Environmental Health and Engineering
- Epidemiology
- Molecular Microbiology and Immunology
- Cellular and Molecular Medicine
Since its inception in 2014, Teachers and Researchers United (TRU) has since campaigned for and won multiple improvements to the living conditions of graduate workers at JHU. Said improvements include…
- The implementation of an 8-week parental leave policy (with full tuition and stipend benefits), so we don’t have to choose between our careers and our families.
- Improvements to the university healthcare plan, including vision and dental coverage and reducing the yearly out-of-pocket maximum.
- 100% coverage of Urgent Care expenses, with a waived deductible. We shouldn’t have to hesitate to get the emergency care we need!
- The creation of the Provost’s Advisory Team on Healthcare (PATH), giving grads a greater say in our health benefits.
- $5 million in COVID-19 relief for PhD students. This came in the form of 100 travel and research awards averaging about $5000, and 200-300 dissertation completion awards that include tuition, health insurance, and stipend for one semester.