More than 100 demonstrators turned out on Brown University's campus during Family Weekend to support two unions negotiating with the university. The Graduate Labor Organization and the Labor Organization of Community Coordinators held a joint picket that lasted three hours, drawing graduate workers, resident coordinators and several local elected officials into the fall air as bargaining with the university remains deadlocked.
The demonstration, held on October 24, was meant to raise awareness about complaints over how contract negotiations have unfolded, according to the Brown Daily Herald. Both unions were negotiating new collective bargaining agreements with the university, according to the Brown Daily Herald.
Elected Officials Join the Picket Line
City Councilwoman Jill Davidson, who represents Ward 2, attended the picket, as did state Representative David Morales, the Democratic nominee for Providence mayor, and Annajane Yolken, the Democratic nominee for City Council Ward 13. Morales told demonstrators the unions had allies on and off campus who would help secure a fair contract, per the same Herald report.
GLO bargaining committee co-chair Sam Bisno said a strike remains the unions' ultimate bargaining tool and that organizers are prepared to use it if negotiations stall further — a sentiment LOCC's Mikhaila Reid echoed, saying the same of her union's position. GLO and Brown began bargaining for a new contract in February, and negotiations have stalled over wage increases, bargaining-unit recognition of graduate fellows, and grievance procedures, the Herald reported.
A Wide Gap on Wages
GLO initially proposed a 12% base stipend increase for fiscal year 2027, followed by 11% in FY28 and 10% in FY29, according to the Brown Daily Herald's July report. Over the summer, the union lowered its FY27 demand from 12% to 11% — a move Bisno called a gesture of good faith. Bisno said GLO had no reason to lower its demands further while Brown maintained a zero-percent raise proposal, and he argued the university's five-year contract proposal broke with the precedent of three-year agreements. Brown GLO president Michael Ziegler, in a piece published by the Herald, put the university's counter at 0% for the current fiscal year, 1.5% for FY 2028–30 and 2% in FY 2031. Elsewhere, Brown has been described as countering with a 6.7% stipend increase over five years paired with a $20,000 increase to an assistance fund for international graduate workers, according to the same outlet. The university has pointed to its current base doctoral stipend, which it says is higher than every Ivy-plus school except Stanford University — a comparison GLO president Michael Ziegler has contested in part by noting Stanford sits in a region with a higher cost of living.
Housing Costs and Compensation
Housing costs and the work graduate students perform on fellowships also featured in the debate. Stipends and living costs were part of broader comparisons of graduate compensation.
LOCC's Contract Talks
LOCC's negotiations were a separate part of the contract dispute. The union's discussions also concerned community coordinator stipends. Proposed stipend levels were part of those discussions, as the parties continued talking about compensation.
Grievance Procedures and the Fellows Question
Grievance procedures were another point of contention in the unions' contract negotiations.
A separate issue involves graduate fellows and whether they should be represented within GLO's bargaining unit. Local 6516 leaders announced in March that fellows would seek inclusion rather than form a separate unit, after a memo indicated more than 70% wanted union representation. Graduate-fellow representation has also figured in discussions about union coverage.
Contract Talks Continue
Brown and GLO continued contract negotiations.
Echoes at Peer Institutions
Brown's standoff is unfolding alongside similar fights elsewhere. At MIT, where the prior graduate contract expired May 31, the university's union had reached tentative agreement on just three of 26 proposed articles by late September, according to The Tech. More than 1,000 MIT graduate workers signed a pledge to strike if necessary, and MIT's proposed raises of 2.75% and 2.25% fell well short of the union's counter of 7.75%, 3.5% and 3.25% over three years.
Harvard's situation has moved even further: the Harvard Graduate Students Union-UAW said it would begin a strike on Tuesday, October 27, if it did not reach a contract agreement, after 88% of voting members backed the walkout, according to The Harvard Crimson. Harvard had proposed an immediate 6.1% raise and nearly 16% in total increases over the contract's life. The Daily Pennsylvanian has also published a comparison of Penn's minimum salary with those at peer institutions.
