GSOC & Bargaining 101
Divided we beg, united we bargain.
As part of the union’s contractual life cycle, the union and the company, New York University, enter a series of bargaining meeting sessions to debate and agree upon amendments to be made to the contract (or, the Collective Bargaining Agreement) before it expires. In that time period, the union, represented by elected members as the Bargaining Committee, will meet with NYU administrators and litigators to accept or reject presented contract-altering proposals.
As the current GSOC contract expires in August 2026, bargaining between the union and NYU will begin on May 4. This timeline provides ample time for the university to reasonably enter good-faith negotiations toward completed contract revisions before the current agreement’s expiration.
After nearly 12 months of bargaining and three weeks of striking, GSOC secured a number of contract revisions in articles including compensation, healthcare, international student support, and family benefits, as well as various other working condition improvements. This includes, for example, hourly pay increase to $30/hr, guaranteed 6 weeks paid Parental Leave, creating a $20k Tax and Legal Services Fund for International Students, and 95% healthcare premium coverage of the Basic and Comprehensive plan for partially-funded Graduate Workers.
For a more comprehensive overview of previous contract victories, visit our Contract Proposal Explainer page.
A university’s budget is the total sum of tuition and fees collected from its student body, organizational and individual donations, and research grants given by the federal government or private groups. Additional revenue sources may come from supplement services, such as hospitals. After a portion of the collected income is reserved for financial aid, the remaining money is divided according to the university’s annually-restructured operational budget.
According to the most recent public summary from August 2024, NYU’s Total Combined Endowment Fund reached $6.7 billion. Endowments refer to the total sum of donations received by the university, sourced most commonly from its alumni network, private & individual donors, corporations, and other organizations that may have vested financial interest in the university.
As the majority of its campus community, students and workers can collectively voice their opinions and place pressure on the university to critically re-evaluate the investments it receives from companies that may be linked to apartheid, weapons manufacturing, fossil fuel production, or other social injustices. .
In 2023, calls from campus activists brought NYU to commit to divesting from, or cutting ties with, companies related to fossil fuels. In a letter to student activist group Sunrise NYU, Board of Trustees Chair William R. Berkley affirmed that the university “commits to avoid any direct investments in any company whose primary business is the exploration or extraction of fossil fuels, including all forms of coal, oil, and natural gas, and not to renew or seek out any dedicated private funds whose primary aim is to invest in the exploration or extraction of fossil fuels.”
More recent calls from the student group NYU People’s Solidarity Coalition (consisting of Students for a Democratic Society, Students for Justice in Palestine, Shut it Down NYU, and GSOC) have drawn attention to the need for NYU to divest from companies supplying resources to Israel’s occupation and genocide in Palestine.