Strike FAQ

Strike FAQ

The following FAQ addresses questions related to if NUGW were to go on strike. The information in this FAQ was last updated March 1st, 2024. 

Why would we go on strike?

We are all adults who deserve dignified jobs which reflect that. We need a stipend that allows us to live today and save for the future. We need healthcare for ourselves and our families. We need to eliminate fees for international workers and for access to transportation.

No! Northwestern has the power to settle a fair contract with us at any time. A strike is our last resort and most powerful tool to force Northwestern to the table. With Northwestern canceling multiple bargaining sessions, a strike may also be necessary to agree on a full contract in a reasonable timeline (we want a contract now, not in 2035).

There is incredible power in numbers. The more graduate workers go on strike, the greater the financial cost to Northwestern refusing to settle a fair contract. The more graduate workers go on strike, the faster we force Northwestern to the bargaining table on our terms.

Yes. If you provide research or instructional labor to the university—even if NU currently asserts that you do not—it is the union’s position that you are a graduate worker, and that you should therefore strike. If the university thinks you’re not doing work for the university, let the university feel the absence of your work. Your right to strike is legally protected regardless of union membership, and part of negotiating the end of the strike will be to ensure that you were not harmed over the course of the strike for strike activities. The most important thing is that we strike together in large numbers. The more people strike, the more we as individuals are protected by being part of a large collective!

No. If the graduate assistantship provides research or instructional services to the university, you provide work for the university and therefore should go on strike. Your NU-affiliated employer should be putting pressure on the university to settle the strike and allow you to resume your work.

First year grad students should attend their own courses Your coworkers will appreciate your support for the strike by taking shifts on our picket line, wearing buttons or stickers in support of our strike, posting on social media, talking to faculty about your support, and talking to other grad students about how they can participate in and/or support the strike. If you provide additional research or instructional services to the university, do not provide those services for the duration of the strike (e.g., if you are working in a lab while taking classes, continue attending classes, then join the picket line). If at any point in the course of your time at NU you provide research and/or instructional labor to the university, you will be considered in “the bargaining unit” and will be covered by the contract under your status as a worker. This is the first union contract between NU Grad Workers and the University and it will set the standard of workplace protections and benefits for the future. So while you as a first year on fellowship may not have labor to withhold yet, you will in the future and this contract affects all of us at the university.

Yes, if you are providing research or instructional services to the university and are paid for it. If you are unpaid and solely taking classes, we encourage you to join our picket lines in solidarity, but you are not required to strike.

Providing anyone within the university data in the form of dissertation chapters, prospectuses, theses, or other academic deliverables may constitute research services and should be postponed until the strike is settled. As such, dissertation defenses and chapter submissions should be postponed. There should be no business as usual in our departments! We also encourage you to join picket lines for the strike.

Striking is a protected right under the National Labor Relations Act. So, you cannot be fired or retaliated against for striking. That said, our greatest protection is strength in numbers. The more grad workers go on strike, the less likely retaliation from Northwestern becomes. In the unlikely event that you are retaliated against for your strike participation, you should immediately contact your NUGW department organizer and send an email with any relevant details to nugraduateworkers@gmail.com. In the event of retaliation, your union would not ratify a new contract without remedying any harms, including having any wrongfully terminated grad workers reinstated. We will fight for us! And your coworkers will fight for you!

Don’t do it. Striking is a protected activity, but our greatest strength is mass participation. Northwestern’s administration has the power to bring the strike to an end for all grad workers. Tell your supervisor, PI, or anyone asking you to do work that you and your union have authorized a strike, and that any request to resume work should be directed at Northwestern’s administration. If you personally are having difficulties responding to these requests, please reach out to your NUGW department organizer or an elected officer.

No. All workers are legally protected under the NLRA regardless of immigration status. It is against the law for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to ask you questions about union membership/participation or take them into account when reviewing your application. There is no known case of any international student being expelled from the university as a result of union activities, nor would such an expulsion be legal.

Northwestern could find out if you participate in strike or strike-related activities. However, standing in visible solidarity with your colleagues will make the strike stronger and shorter and demonstrate our power, ultimately resulting in stronger wins for our contract at the table. Further, standing in visible solidarity makes it less feasible for Northwestern to retaliate against individuals, as doing so is not only illegal but would significantly weaken its workforce. Never forget who makes Northwestern work: You!

Many graduate workers cannot afford to miss a paycheck. This financial precarity is exactly why we are going on strike. It is important to acknowledge and internalize that a strike is a sacrifice. It is a last resort measure because of how disruptive it can be to workers’ lives. While Northwestern might decide to withhold pay, a maximally effective strike will result in minimal time on strike before settling the contract. The stronger the strike, the shorter the strike. In individual cases, a hardship fund will be available to help cover necessary expenses and mitigate the hardships associated with this strike. Core organizers are already brainstorming ideas about how we as union members ensure that we take care of one another during any potential strike—a strike kitchen has been brought up! If the University does withhold pay or benefits, we will not return to work without first securing a written return to work agreement that adequately settles all consequences of the strike. This return to work agreement will be ratified by all striking workers at the same time as the vote to officially end the strike. Our union is our community, and we will ensure that we care for each other in the case of a strike.

It is very rare for employers to cut health benefits, and such an action by Northwestern would be publicly embarrassing and a huge obstacle to recruiting top talent to graduate programs during graduate recruitment season. If the University does withhold pay or benefits, we will not return to work without first securing a written return to work agreement that adequately settles all consequences of the strike. This return to work agreement will be ratified by all striking workers at the same time as the vote to officially end the strike. In the short term, our strike fund and potential community solidarity funds would be able to help cover such expenses.

The Bargaining Committee will ask Northwestern’s team for their last, best, and final offer. Members will be able to vote on that offer at the same time as voting to authorize a strike. If the offer meets our needs, a strike can be averted. If not, the strike authorization vote empowers your elected Bargaining Committee to call for a strike. Core organizers will be in regular contact with you and all members throughout the process and about what’s happening at the bargaining table and on campus. Join the Contract Action Team to get involved in organizing!

Join the picket lines! Wear your NUGW swag (come to the Contract Action Team meeting to get a shirt)! Stay in contact with your lab group, cohort, and department to join in on specific strike actions designed to put pressure on the university. Be kind and look out for one another. Solidarity forever!

We all hope that it does not come to a strike. Northwestern has both the money and the power to avoid a strike at any time if they so choose. If they don’t value Grad Worker labor enough to avert a strike, then the more impactful our strike is, the shorter it will be. Having every single grad worker stop their work in a way that maximizes the economic and PR fallout to the University will allow us to settle a strike as quickly as possible.

The rank-and-file membership ultimately decides when to stop striking through a contract authorization vote. Bargaining continues throughout the strike until your bargaining committee recommends the collective bargaining agreement for approval. Once a contract is approved by a membership vote with a quorum, the strike is over and graduate workers will return to their research and instructional services for the university. 

If you are not sure if you are a member, ask a department organizer in your department or email nugradworkers@gmail.com to inquire.

Withhold your labor from the university. Do not provide any remote research or instructional services to the university during the strike. In addition, you can support the strike by passing on info about the strike to your colleagues on campus, voicing support and/or participation in the strike, sharing the community strike fund, sharing social media posts, and sending messages to administrators pressuring them to end the strike with a strong contract. If you are visiting another university or educational institution, wear your NUGW swag, speak out about the strike and your solidarity. Be on the lookout for other remote striking actions and activities!

Show solidarity! Whether that is joining us on the picket lines, donating to our strike fund, talking with graduate worker colleagues about the strike, or raising concerns with administrators, every action helps us bring the strike to its conclusion as quickly as possible. Even if you’re not providing research or instructional services to Northwestern, victories won by graduate unions have extended to all grad workers and their campuses more broadly.

A strike constitutes a full stoppage of any activities that provide research or instructional services to the university. This includes providing anyone within the university, including your PI or dissertation chair, with analyzed data in the form of dissertation chapters, qualifying exams, or other academic deliverables. This constitutes providing research services to the university and, therefore, you should not perform any such activities during the strike.

A research strike involves a full stoppage of research services to the university. Strikes are most effective when the university can feel the absence of your labor, especially since your and your colleagues’ research has generated over $1 billion in research funding last year. At MIT, the credible threat of a full work stoppage in research labs allowed for the settlement of a contract before the strike even began. 

There is a huge impact when PIs who bring in millions of dollars to the university walk into their labs and see them deserted. This will put increased pressure on the administration to settle the strike as quickly as possible for all.

A teaching strike is a full stoppage of instructional services to the university. This includes all teaching, grading, proctoring, running labs, and other labor included in being a TA. The working conditions of instructional Graduate workers are the learning conditions of our students. The two are intertwined and both will be improved with a union contract. Talk with your students about you being represented by a union on campus and what you as a member of NUGW are fighting for in a first contract. Communicate that a withdrawal of your labor is about improving work conditions in the classroom. Students deserve more than overworked, mentally and physically exhausted instructors who live paycheck to paycheck. Talk to your students about the strike, why you and other grad workers are participating, and how contract protections for graduate instructors improves the quality of their instruction. Not all students will immediately understand why a strike is happening, be open and honest about your working conditions and use this as a moment to do what you do best—educate! Remind students that pressure on the administration will settle the contract and ask students to show support for the strike by wearing an NUGW pin around campus. 

Withholding your labor impacts the university’s ability to run. The administrators can’t teach our classes. This university runs because of us and our academic labor.

When these milestones provide research services to the university, you should postpone them until after the contract is settled and the strike is over. The more visible and impactful our strike is, the shorter it will be for everyone.

Yes, if it is publicly announced. As long as the strike has been made public, informing your PI/supervisor of your intention to strike allows them to put pressure on the administration to settle a fair contract before a strike becomes necessary.

Ultimately, the PI’s research endeavors impact the University’s prestige and their bottom line when it comes to research grant dollars. Northwestern has the power to end the strike at any time by accepting our reasonable demands. Funding agencies understand this dynamic. In fact, Northwestern is not even meeting internal guidelines for grad workers funded through government agencies, like the Department of Energy or the National Institutes of Health. If your PI has further questions, you can show them NUGW’s Faculty FAQ that responds to many common concerns of faculty.

Northwestern’s administration has the power to bring the strike to an end for all grad workers at any time. Tell your supervisor, PI, or anyone asking you to do work that you and your union have authorized a strike, and that any request to resume work should be directed at Northwestern’s administration. If you personally are having difficulties responding to these requests, please reach out to your NUGW department organizer or an elected officer.