UConn Graduate Worker Union Planning Demonstration Amid Contract Negotiations

STORRS, CT — The UConn Graduate Employee and Postdoc Union is organizing a march on UConn's campus next week to deliver a petition "signed by organizations representing hundreds of thousands of people in Connecticut and beyond in support of graduate assistants in ongoing contract negotiations."

State Rep. Gregg Haddad and Ed Hawthorne, the president of the Connecticut AFL-CIO, are scheduled speakers.

The union is formally knows as the GEU UAW Local 6950.

The demonstration is slated for Tuesday, March 24 at noon, on Fairfield Way at UConn.

Said union representatives, "In a time when higher education is under attack, the GEU demands the UConn administration invest in the state’s flagship public university by ensuring the economic and social well-being of graduate workers in their next contract. Graduate assistants are advocating for fair wages and fee waivers, safe working conditions, and strong protections for international graduate students."

The GEU is the exclusive bargaining representative of more than 2,300 graduate assistants at the University of Connecticut, including instructors, teaching assistants and research assistants.

"The GEU is entering what will likely be the last days of negotiating their next collective bargaining agreement with the university administration," the union said.