Graduate Student Workers Union reached a tentative deal with USC

The USC Administration reached a tentative agreement with the Graduate Student Workers Union less than 36 hours before the strike deadline late last night, conceding to wage gains and workplace protections.

Under the tentative agreement, wages would go up from about 35-thousand dollars a year to about 40-thousand dollars a year with further wage increases up to about 25 percent over four years.

The USC Administration also agreed to workplace protections on nondiscrimination. This would attempt to enforce protections for Graduate Student Workers who face harassment or discrimination in the workplace.

The USC dean of the graduate school, Andrew Stott was pleased with the deal and all that it had to offer.

Andrew Stott: So I’m really pleased with it. I think, as I said, I think it kind of reaffirms our commitment to graduate education. I think it’s a clear demonstration of the extent to which we value our graduate students. We listened to their priorities. We took them really seriously and we made substantive offers on every priority that they told us that they had. So this now places USC is among the premier institutions in the country for doctoral education, and that’s exactly where it belongs.

Stepp Mayes: I’m really excited about the wins in this contract.

Stepp Mayes is Ph.D student studying environmental engineering. He works as a research and teaching assistant and has organized in the Union for more than two years.

Mayes: And I think it’s such a great foundation for, you know, Christian workers to be protected and, you know, eventually be negotiating another contract and win even more. So you have to get a lot of things right on the first one. And I think we did also.

When questioned about what he sees as the greatest feat in the tentative agreement, Stepp said it was the article on discrimination and harassment in employment.

Stepp Mayes: and the ways that it addresses harassment and discrimination through, you know, immediate interim measures, through the grievance procedure, through cooperation between our procedure and the Title nine procedure and through eventual arbitration. I think that that’s a lot of protections.

The bargaining team voted unanimously to approve the tentative agreement and send it to Graduate Student Workers for a ratification vote taking place next week.

In the latest Instagram Post by the Graduate Student Workers Union, the caption stated the provisions agreed to in the tentative agreement along with a celebratory ending statement reading, “Together, WE WON!!!!”

For Annenberg Media.. I’m Hunter Deniaud