TUGSA has from the beginning struggled for fairness and dignity for all graduate workers at Temple University. As a volunteer-run organization, we exist entirely in the solidarity and action of graduate students at Temple. We truly are only as strong as our membership, as it can be no other way. Join today!
The Start of TUGSA
From its start, TUGSA was about the greater good for both grads and the Temple community as a whole, including the surrounding neighborhoods and residents. The movement for a union was spurred by two specific issues that emerged around the same time:
A proposed cut of up to 20% of all TA and RA lines in the College of Arts and Sciences
A University cannot consist of buildings alone, nor is technology a substitute for talented faculty and students. Temple's success or failure in attracting undergraduates will not ultimately depend upon the size of its sports arena, but will instead depend upon its reputation as a research institution, a reputation which is contingent upon the presence of strong graduate programs. We therefore demand that the administration reverse this flight of capital from graduate education, and reinvest in the scholarly work which promises to promote Temple's standing among universities much more than any structure of glass and steel might. We want to see the University fund more -- rather than fewer -- graduate students, and we want academic programs to have the ability to hire much-needed faculty.
Temple President Peter J. Liacouras's racist and exclusionary "Report on Strategic Initiatives"
The President's “Report on Strategic Initiatives” -- bemoaning “an abrupt decline in undergraduate enrollment from the suburbs, particularly among white males” -- uses familiar racially-coded language when it emphasizes the importance of enhancing Temple's appeal to suburban students and asserts that doing so “requires a change in those ‘mind-sets’ that equate ‘Temple’ with ‘City’ and ‘North Philadelphia’ and ‘crime.’”... We insist that the University not sacrifice its populist mission in the interest of courting “elite” students, students who are -- for reasons of race, gender, class, or geography -- imagined to be more desirable members of the Temple community. We demand that the University reaffirm its commitment to affirmative action programs at all levels -- in the hiring of faculty and staff as well as in the selection of graduate and undergraduate candidates for admission.
See TUGSA’s original eight-point platform for an overview of issues that grad students identified in their vision of grad work at Temple. We’re still fighting the same fights today, and we can only be successful when we all stand together!
“The University's failure to regard its funded graduate students as employees does not simply betoken the administration's lack of appreciation for the intellectual labor we perform; it also implicitly denies to us the rights which workers generally enjoy in dealings with their employers.”
At noon on April 2, 1997, on the seventh floor of Gladfelter Hall, the Graduate Association for Teaching and Research, which would later become TUGSA, held its very first meeting. Amid growing concern over the working conditions of graduate students and proposed cuts to TA lines of up to 20%, graduate students across the university began ask themselves, “does it behoove us to unionize?”
Despite teaching the same courses as full-time professors, graduate student employees did not receive the benefits that professors or other University staff received: graduate students received a baseline salary of $10,000, with no health insurance subsidy, no cost of living adjustment, and no grievance procedure. Further spurring concern, TA lines were being cut with no warning or explanation.
What was grad life like before TUGSA?
Graduate student workers were paid a baseline of $10,000 a year.
Because there was no minimum compensation that was enforceable by a union contract, in certain circumstances departments could hire grads according to special arrangements, allowing for pay below the already extremely low $10,000 baseline. As grad student Ganina Lagodsky said at the time, "In the English Department we graduate employees are responsible for more than half of the introductory Composition courses. We teach our own courses and do not simply assist professors with large sections. Because students enrolled in introductory writing courses require a lot of attention, we spend more than 20 hours a week on our teaching. I believe our needs as employees must be addressed because we determine -- to a large extent -- the quality of education at Temple."
Graduate students received zero dollars in healthcare subsidies.
Alicia Elsetinow, a TUGSA organizer, researcher, and Ph.D. student in Chemistry at the time, explained that the only affordable health insurance option offered her by the university provides the barest minimum of coverage. “When I am sick,” said Elsetinow, “I cannot and do not call my doctor because of the exorbitant expenses that would accumulate due to copays, lab fees, and prescriptions, among other charges left uncovered. I am very apprehensive about how I will manage if I should ever need hospital services. I do not know how I would pay for them because of the high deductible and the fact that my plan offers only partial coverage.”
Workplace safety was a serious issue for many, particularly in the natural sciences.
From Dan Winkowski, a grad student in Biology at the time: “I teach lab sections for large lecture courses in Biology and am concerned about health and safety. In one of the labs I teach, ventilation is poor and hazardous fumes are at times overwhelming. When previous TAs tried to get the problem fixed, they went to OSHA [Occupational Safety and Health Administration], but were told that, since the school classified us as students and not employees, OSHA regulations don't protect us. Other avenues yielded the same result. When TUGSA wins us recognition as employees, these concerns will be remedied much more quickly, and I'll be able to breathe easier."
There were no enforceable workload guidelines.
From grad student at the time Aliza Hildebrand: “I’m an employee of Temple; this past year I taught four courses each semester. That is a pretty heavy workload, and I was the sole teacher of these classes. I feel that a union at Temple University will represent me on such issues as workload, health insurance, wages and working conditions. As a single voice, I won't really be heard if there is a problem. However, with a union speaking for me, maybe the administration will listen."
“As Temple's health insurance system stands, a graduate student is forced to pay between 10% and 20% of her income for any medical insurance beyond the most minimal of coverage, and even the most expensive insurance available through the University includes neither vision nor dental coverage. The current health insurance options are unacceptable. We cannot have an entire population of students and student-workers who are uninsured or under-insured.”
On February 12, 1999, TUGSA representatives took 690 membership cards and filed a request for a union election with the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board. After much delay by the lawyers for Temple administration, a hearing was finally held.
At the hearing, TUGSA argued that graduate students who are employed by the University should be considered employees as well as students and therefore entitled to the same rights and benefits as other employees, including union representation. Temple administration, on the other hand, argued that graduate students who work for the University are primarily students and should therefore not be categorized as employees.
Over a year later, on October 17th, 2000, the PLRB finally ruled that graduate students who work at Temple are in fact employees and therefore can unionize. In March 2001, Temple graduate student employees voted 290 to 16 in favor of union representation. Our first CBA was agreed to in 2002, and we began negotiations on our sixth in the fall of 2021.
A lot has happened since 2021. A detailed history of our negotiations and strike is forthcoming. In the meantime, checkout what we won in our new CBA!