🎉 ⭐ On Thursday, September 14th, over 60 graduate student workers attended our fourth bargaining session for a strong contract ⭐🎉 

Key takeaways from the session:

1. The BU administration agreed to our Separability proposal that we put forth in a previous bargaining session. We asked about each of our other proposals, and BU has not provided any other counter proposals yet. You can follow the status of each article with our bargaining tracker. We will continue to press BU to respond to our proposals in a timely manner. 
2. The BU administration met our demand and shared a list of workers from the BU directory that they believed to be in our unit. We encourage everyone to reach out to a union rep or bargaining team member and check if you’re included on the recently provided list. We will continue to push for the other outstanding information that BU administration is legally mandated to provide us. Our fight continues.  
3. The BU administration revealed unsettling information regarding how they conceptualize “work” at BU. In their definition they excluded many of us who teach and conduct research for the University. We will continue to fight for a contract that includes all graduate workers who provide labor and receive compensation from the university. 

What is next in our fight for a fair contract?

1. We need everyone to review our contract campaign platform. This platform is the direct result of months of organizing and drafting articles based on the lived experiences of graduate workers from across BU. 
2. Attend our general membership meeting TODAY (Wednesday, September 20th) at 5 pm ET, CILSE 101 (CRC), L210 (BUMC) and on Zoom. The meeting will be followed by a social at 6pm (COM lawn/Zoom). If attending in person, please mask up to protect yourself and our community. 
3. Participate in the platform ratification vote, which will go live directly following the general membership meeting and will remain open for one week. 

BUGWU and SEIU 509 Condemn the School of Public Health’s Censorship of Alice Wong. 

On Thursday, September 14th, disabled activist, writer, editor, media maker, and consultant Alice Wong spoke at an event hosted by the BU School of Public Health (BUSPH). Prior to the event, BUSPH asked Alice to refrain from calling out 3 public health leaders, Anthony Fauci, Ashish Jha and Leana Wen, for making public statements that dismiss and devalue the lives of people who are disabled, immunocompromised, and/or otherwise at high risk of serious disease from COVID-19 infections. Disabled people should never be silenced or censored for holding public leaders accountable, and their access needs should never be used to censor them. 

Alice Wong continues to be a leader for disability and pandemic justice and the BUSPH’s actions are connected to a larger issue at BU where people with disabilities are continually marginalized, dismissed, and ignored. As a union, we are committed to using our contract fight as an opportunity to build better systems and structures that support disabled people at BU and protect our entire community from the ongoing pandemic and climate crisis. We encourage everyone to read our platform and read about our access needs and public health proposals. We also encourage everyone to read Alice Wong’s response to her experiences at the BUSPH.

⭐ = Updates

🎉 = Victory

Do you or someone you know have any interest in helping to create & edit this newsletter? Getting involved is easy, with no commitment level required. Everyone is welcome; we’re happy to have all the help we can get! Just search for the #communications-team channel in the BUGWU slack. (Not on the BUGWU slack? Reach out to any union rep to join!)