Around 50 MIT graduate students marched from MIT’s campus to Cambridge City Council on Monday to speak in support of their demands for a fair contract from MIT. While the council cannot force MIT to act, it has in the past issued policy orders (including in 2020, 2021 and 2022) in support of the MIT graduate student union. Union organizers see its actions as leverage in their fight with the MIT administration. Their protest and city council presence follow their call for a strike pledge last Wednesday. United Electrical Local 256, which represents the graduate students union, has been bargaining since April. The contract expired in June.
“We are calling on MIT to stop taking advantage of the Trump administration’s policies and heinous attacks on higher education and to rather work with its graduate workers to look after the needs of students, workers, faculty, and staff on campus,” said Lauren Chua, a 5th year graduate student in material science, who is president of the union, during public comment.
In an interview beforehand, Chua said the union came to the bargaining table in the summer excited but were met with few bargaining sessions. Union members understand the political pressures MIT faces but believe MIT can do better in protecting international student workers. Students are particularly frustrated by concessionary proposals that would cut their healthcare benefits.
The city council unanimously passed a policy order supporting the UE 256 graduate workers at MIT and their efforts to secure a fair contract. Bargaining committee member Baltasar Dinis, a 4th year PhD student in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, said in an interview this should help at the bargaining table as outside scrutiny of MIT makes the administration more accommodating. He said after the union received 1,000 strike pledges, MIT took a less aggressive tack in the first bargaining session of the new semester, which also happened Monday. Dinis pointed to MIT’s living wage calculator and the connection MIT has to the city of Cambridge as reasons why the city should take the matter seriously.
“It is vital for the broader city to have grad students who can afford to live in Cambridge. According to MIT’s living wage calculator, grad students make 75 percent of the living wage in Cambridge,” Dinis said. The calculator says a living wage in Middlesex County would pay $33.99 an hour.
Dinis noted that even with federal funding cuts, MIT can afford to spend $3 million on AI cameras and argues it should be able to afford the 10% raise they are bargaining for. The administration only gave them a 2.75% raise, below the 3.4% U.S. inflation rate over the last 12 months. Students say a 10% raise would cost only 0.6% of MIT’s operating budget.
“It’s not about higher education funding uncertainty, it’s about whether MIT prioritizes grads students or not,” Dinis said.
The students hope to settle a fair contract this fall. Harvard University has also seen labor unrest, with its graduate student workers striking through commencement and academic workers in August voting to authorize a strike.
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