Reflecting on the GSWOC Contract Campaign

By Anna Weiss, GSWOC-UAW

Last year in April 2023, over 3,000 graduate student workers at the University of Southern California (USC) began bargaining with our employer. Going up against USC, the largest private sector employer in Los Angeles with an annual endowment of $8 billion, we prepared for a militant contract campaign in order to secure the wins we’d come together to form a union for earlier that year. Some driving issues during the card drive were higher wages and more equitable pay, support for international workers, and protections from harassment and discrimination. The contract that a majority of GSWs ratified on December 6th not only included major gains in all of these areas, but set a strong foundation for future negotiations with the university as our first union contract. 

Early on, we identified that our power came from many sources but largely from our numbers and our labor, and therefore our ability to build a credible strike threat. Working backwards from that, we set to work building our capacity to pull off a majority strike and unite meaningfully against the boss. To do so, it was crucial that our effort was worker-led, and that we had a structure that was democratic and required our coworkers to participate.

We set out to identify and recruit department organizers or ‘area leaders’ to department organizing committees (DOCs) in departments which made up a majority of the unit. The job of area leaders was to attend regular DOCs with other area leaders in their department and recruit others to do the same, keep folks in their own area updated on bargaining, and mobilize them to come out to bargaining actions. Later, area leaders would also serve as the democratic representatives of workers in their departments to shape and land on a final agreement.

Using this structure, we turned out en masse to a bargaining session in June, organized our coworkers to sign onto a United for Workplace Justice letter in July, rallied for Workplace Justice and organized departmental deliveries of the letter in August, gathered for a Mass Membership Meeting in September, took a Strike Authorization Vote in October, and held a Last Chance Picket, set strike dates, and made strike plans in November.

By this point, we had built a strike threat so credible that 2 days before our deadline, USC made major concessions to avoid a strike, and we reached a tentative agreement. The agreement included a 12% raise to a $40k minimum stipend for the lowest paid workers, consistent year-over-year wage increases, 6 weeks guaranteed paid leave, a legal fund for international workers facing visa issues, substantial childcare and dependent funds, an agency shop and strong union access provisions, grievable protections for harassment and discrimination with clear timelines for interim measures, and more. 

The contract was ratified by a majority of GSWs approximately a week later with over 70% of GSWs voting and 81.4% voting yes. GSWs at USC now have an industry-setting contract that not only enshrines basic rights and protections that had been under the unilateral control of the university, but also sets a precedent for what's possible in the private sector. Now, as we’re writing bylaws, electing leadership, and organizing toward majority membership, we’re proud to help shape this moment in the labor movement alongside our coworkers in the region, and excited to keep building worker power here at USC.