Georgia State University
Georgia State University employees started organizing our chapter of UCWGA in Fall 2018. The GSU chapter is open to workers at all GSU campuses, including Downtown (Atlanta), Perimeter, Clarkston, Dunwoody, Decatur, and Alpharetta.
We are building a voice on campus for ALL employees. This includes undergraduate student workers, graduate students, staff, and faculty.
There are many issues we are eager to work on--from demanding respect for staff, to cost of living pay raises, the need to address the high cost of student fees and low stipends for graduate student employees, and poverty pay rates for adjuncts, to equitable pay and treatment for faculty, regardless of race and gender. Our current campaigns include:
Organizing Against the USG Work-From-Home Policy
On Tuesday, May 20th, Georgia State University Staff received an email notice that all remote work agreements will expire on July 31st, 2025, and that the "standard expectation will be five days a week of in-person work, beginning Aug. 1, 2025."
The university has established a range of options for students to receive assistance virtually since the COVID-19 pandemic. An in-office mandate would inevitably reduce virtual assistance options and harm the student experience as a result. Mandatory in-person work will also disrupt the lives of numerous employees at GSU, many of whom were hired as hybrid/fully remote workers or may have health or childcare needs that rely on the flexibility of remote work. In the worst case, this policy may be weaponized to quietly reduce staff who cannot comply, or enable unjust terminations of employees.
The good news: A process has been outlined by GSU’s administration for remote work agreement approvals, but it's up to us to put collective pressure on management. UCW-GSU is helping to organize workers and departments affected by this mandate to push their bosses to adopt these approvals. If you are interested in making this change with your colleagues but don't know where to start, please send an email to ucwga.gsu@gmail.com and we will help you push for the conditions you deserve.
A Living Wage Campaign
As the cost of living in Atlanta has increased drastically over the last few years, employee wages have stagnated. We have been working to address various aspects of this issue that have been compiled in our Fair Pay at Georgia State petition.
In November 2024, GSU members delivered the petition, which had over 500 signatures from members of the GSU community, to President Blake's office. GSU's student newspaper, The Signal, wrote an article about our demands and the petition delivery here.
The Graduate Student Coalition
Graduate students are among the most exploited employees in the university. Abysmal stipend amounts, exorbitant costs in healthcare insurance, and a cost of living crisis has left many graduate students living paycheck to paycheck without any significant financial stability. The Graduate Student Coalition aims to form a broad coalition of graduate students from all departments at the university where we can collectively identify and advocate for the issues affecting graduate students at GSU. We are critical employees that perform research, teach, and assist in daily operations that are fundamental to the university’s continued function. As such, we believe that we must work together to improve our situations as vital workers and as students.
We have been working towards building a platform that addresses five main issues:
- Stipend amounts
- Health insurance costs
- Student fees
- Costs related to transportation (i.e. parking permits, MARTA cards)
- Struggles specific to international students
What have we won?
As a result of sustained pressure from the GSU community and our living wage campaign, in January 2025 the GSU administration announced pay increases for PhD students in several departments. They also announced that in the future, subsidies for health care coverage for all graduate students would be considered.
This change was made possible by the application of constant pressure from campaigns organized by graduate students, staff, and faculty alike. While this change in policy is a good start, it does not go nearly far enough to address the struggles that many graduate students encounter in affording to live in the Atlanta metro area.
We invite all GSU graduate students to join the Coalition and help build a community rooted in solidarity and take actionable steps to be compensated fairly for our labor.
Want to join us in moving forward with issues that are important to you?
If you are interested in attending a chapter meeting over Summer 2025, please email ucwga.gsu@gmail.com and we can send a Zoom link. All our chapter meetings are entirely virtual.
If you're interested in learning more about the union, please email us at ucwga.gsu@gmail.com with any questions! We can provide you with more up-to-date info about current happenings in the union and send info for our chapter meetings if you'd like to sit in.
We also have a monthly social at Fellini's Pizza (1634 McLendon Ave) on the second Tuesday of every month at 6:30pm. Feel free to join us and meet some of our members!
We provide additional chapter updates on our on Instagram and via email, and we also have a Slack channel that is available to all members at GSU.