Militant Grad Workers Build Union Power to Fight Attacks on Education and Labor

A shining light within the U.S. labor movement over the past several years has been the rising wave of unionization and militancy among graduate workers, whose labor helps prop up the entire system of U.S. higher education. Tens of thousands of graduate workers have unionized over the past half-decade at institutions like Stanford , UChicago , MIT , Duke , Minnesota , and many more. According to one study , as of January 2024, around 38 percent of graduate student employees were represented by unions, with over 150,000 graduate workers across 81 units.

Grad workers across the U.S. have also engaged in militant protests and strikes not just over recognition and contract fights, but also to oppose attacks on the Palestine solidarity movement. Many graduate unions see their mis