This week, 600 graduate student researchers and instructors (the WPI Graduate Workers’ Union) ratified their first contract at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) with a 97.5% yes vote. Workers at the university achieved a very strong first contract that includes: 20% raises in the first year with salary increases that bring workers’ salary up from $32,000 to a minimum floor of $39,000. Many workers will make over $40,000 for the first time at WPI through the life of this agreement. Raise in the hourly minimum rates by $3-5/hour for hourly administrative workers, instructors, and researchers. Annual raises to the minimum rate ...
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Strong majority of Worcester Polytechnic Institutes’ Graduate Student Workers vote to unionize, adding momentum to the movement of academic organizing across the country. WORCESTER, MA – According to votes counted last night by the National Labor Relations Board, a majority of Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s more than 550 Graduate Workers have voted to form their union, WPI-GWU UAW. The vote was 364 to 15. This comes on the heels of a successful vote at Washington State University where 1,500 academic workers chose to form a union, and brings the weekly total of higher education workers joining the UAW to over 2,000. ...
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