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Good morning!
Yesterday, over 150 graduate students, undergraduates, and post-graduates attended a rally organized by Princeton Graduate Students United (PGSU) to demand fair wages and better living conditions.
Included among PGSU’s demands are “improved international student support, better healthcare and funded childcare, affordable housing through graduation, guaranteed pay raises and contingency funds,
and clear and safe work standards.” Organizer and graduate student Gaby Nair also expressed hopes for a union election in the near future.
This rally is one of many unionization movements happening at universities around the country. Graduate workers at Columbia University went on a 10-week strike while demanding higher wages and increased health benefits. The University of California System also saw a similar strike that helped spark unionization efforts across the country.
Princeton post-doctoral researchers recently issued similar demands. In January, the Princeton University Postdocs and Scholars (PUPS) organized a march to call for a larger rise in the minimum salary for postdocs on the basis of student experience and costs of living.
Graduate Students are a large part of the Princeton undergraduate learning experience most commonly hosting precepts, teaching language classes, and working as lab assistants. In the words of the graduate students at the PGSU rally, “Princeton works because we do,”.
At yesterday’s rally, speakers detailed difficulties they had experienced in areas such as housing, internship opportunities, and international student support. During his speech, graduate student Anthony Taboni said, “The University has failed us and their priorities aren’t clear.”
Analysis by Michelle Miao and Sidney Singer
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