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Our union @BrownSUGSE has released its demands to @BrownUniversity for supporting grad workers through the COVID-19 pandemic. I was one of the many grads who helped formulate the demands, so I want to talk a little bit about each of them and why they're so crucial now. https://twitter.com/BrownSUGSE/status/1245717868026699776
First: settle a fair union contract. We don't know what kind of economic disruption is coming, but signs suggest it could be significant. A fair contract lets grads rest easy knowing their salary, benefits, and protections are guaranteed through the duration of the agreement.
We've been talking for over a year about the stability and independent voice that a chartered union with a contract provides. In uncertain times, we need that more than ever.
Second: stop the clock and extend grad funding for a year. We've had our work and research disrupted, we're adjusting to online teaching demands, we're caring for family members, some of us may become sick. We can't make progress on our degrees as normal.
I'm supposed to hit the job market in September. What job market, you ask? Well, precisely. Many universities have already announced hiring freezes; some have rescinded offers they've already made. The job market, already decimated in many disciplines, may simply cease to exist.
A full year of funding extension is necessary for grads to not only finish their degrees, but to have a small amount of security against the inevitable collapse of the 2020 academic job market.
Third: ensure equity by protecting international grads and parents. International grad students are even more precarious than US citizens. Some have returned home and aren't sure when they'll be able to get back. Others are unable to return home and not sure when they will be.
Their visa status and employment prospects depend on institutional affiliation; their livelihoods depend on the university stipend, which is in many cases tied to teaching and research duties whose fulfillment has become vastly more complicated.
We need to make sure that international grads are able to continue in their programs with guaranteed funding and visa status, no matter what their individual situation. We need to understand that in some cases these situations could take a while to work themselves out.
Parents face great challenges too: they're now caring for kids full time while they balance all the demands of graduate school that the rest of us share. Being a grad parent has never been easy, but it just got much harder. They should have their financial assistance doubled.
Moreover, the university should affirm that all relief policy will be administered in a nondiscriminatory way, and protect the interests of minority and underrepresented grad workers, who we know will feel the effects of this crisis more severely.
Fourth: Cover costs of testing and treatment for all grads, and ensure unlimited paid sick leave for the entire university community. While we've heard some good news about testing being free and available, right now it seems that treatment for COVID will be billed @ normal rates
That means the costs of a hospitalization could very quickly become prohibitive for grads. There are thousands of us; the odds are that some of us will experience severe complications should we become sick. Getting ill shouldn't also break the bank.
Brown should guarantee that everyone who feels ill can stay home, on paid leave, without working, without conditions, through this pandemic. Staying home keeps everyone safe, and now is the time to make sick leave policies as generous as possible for everyone's safety.
And lastly: don't fire if you won't hire. Brown was among the first universities to announce a hiring freeze. Brown should commit to retaining all staff at least through the duration of that hiring freeze. That means no terminations, no layoffs, no cutbacks.
This policy should extend to postdocs, lecturers, adjuncts, researchers, and anyone else working on term-limited contracts. These workers confront many of the same conditions as grad students do and should have their contracts automatically renewed, without exception, for a year.
In times of crisis, people look to institutions. The plan that @BrownSUGSE has released outlines a bold response to the crisis that would secure our lives and livelihoods. Brown will be measured not only by how it treats its grads, but how it treats its whole community.
We're looking forward to @BrownUniversity's response. We'll be reaching out to grads by every available means to organize in support of our plan. Please get in touch! And if you're a Brown grad, sign up to join us at our General Members call here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1JXAG1W4oh2KaRTgD-aDdeAjNkciHDuuODd3QBhVDggU/viewform?link_id=1&can_id=b3896586702d67c888df818d2a3003ae&source=email-we-need-a-contract&email_referrer=email_766269&email_subject=we-need-a-contract&edit_requested=true
Oh, and last thing: you can read even more about our demands here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sB_nui6uXkgYvbg286vgNhqgaioeJCkabZ5V4Q1jVgg/edit
