Massachusetts Members Lobby for UI and PFML for All Workers, Including Grad Workers
UAW members visited the Massachusetts State House on Monday to lobby for S.747, a bill to grant equal access to unemployment insurance and paid family & medical leave for graduate workers.
Graduate workers are currently carved out of PFML and UI in Massachusetts. When our members lose jobs or need to take family or medical leave, we have no safety net. This puts our ability to pay for rent, food, and bills in jeopardy. Despite doing the same work (for less pay) as other teachers and researchers in higher ed and industry, we are denied equal protection.
“Last year I had a pregnant member come to me and ask why her PFML request was denied. I had to tell her that our work is arbitrarily carved out of this program," said Local 1596 member and Massachusetts CAP Chair Dan Rourke. "I have worked as a researcher in industry and in academia—it is the exact same work. She would have to give birth and take unpaid leave, after making poverty wages as a graduate worker.”
Grad worker members from GEO at UMass Lowell (Local 1596) and HGSU-UAW (Local 5118), as well as members from NOLSW (Local 2320) and MIT GSU (UE), shared their stories with legislators and thanked the bill’s sponsors Rep. Erika Uyterhoeven and Sen. Paul Feeney for their solidarity.
Learn more about S.747, which grants equal access to UI and PFML to graduate workers by striking out the specific clause that cuts our members out of these programs. To help our lobbying efforts, share your story with us about how the lack of paid family & medical leave has impacted you.
UAW also joined a legislative briefing with the Massachusetts Nurses Association, IBEW 2222, IUE-CWA Local 201, and the Massachusetts AFL-CIO on the importance of securing unemployment insurance for striking workers. Thank you to Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa and Sen. Feeney for their leadership on this critical legislation to level the playing field for workers at the bargaining table.
Ask your legislators to support S.1319 & H.2168, which would allow employees forced to strike to be eligible for unemployment benefits after 30 days of being on the picket line, standardizing the benefits eligibility of workers engaged in labor disputes.
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