Union Membership and Dues FAQ

While all grad workers at the U are covered under our contract, only dues-paying union members have full rights to participate in union decisions.

Union membership is mandatory for graduate assistants to have any input in their working conditions on campus. It is illegal for the University to negotiate anything related to graduate assistantships with individual graduate workers or with other groups on campus. It is additionally against the rules in the UE Local 1105 constitution for nonmembers to have input over Union matters.

No. Those cards were to petition the state of Minnesota to hold a union election, and while some of the language on the card was similar to the language on our current membership form, signing the 2023 recognition card does not grant full membership status. To become a member, sign up here!

Raising money strengthens our union. Dues are a way for everyone to collectively contribute to an organization that we are all a part of and so they will be used to further organize the bargaining unit and address organizational needs of GLU-UE Local 1105. During contract negotiations, our dues go to paying for supplies for actions (buttons, signs, etc). If members vote to go on strike, our dues would also be going towards a hardship fund to reduce the financial impact for our members.

Dues are 1.44% of your gross (pre-tax) biweekly paycheck. This rate would only change if members elect for it to change.

Members can fill out a Membership Card form, which asks for your name, contact info, student ID number, and a signature. This authorizes the finance committee to send your name to the U for automatic dues deductions from your paycheck—no further action is needed! This is standard practice for dues authorization across unions in UE and It is in line with the UE Local 1105 constitution.

Dues will be deducted beginning with your next paycheck after you sign up for membership.

The majority of our dues are paid to UE National. These funds are utilized to pay full-time UE staff members to assist us with organizing and dealing with grievances. UE also uses these resources to organize new workplaces in the same manner that they helped us start our union. According to our Local’s constitution, 5% of our dues will be earmarked for a hardship fund, which we will use in the case of a strike to help members pay for necessities. We also have operational costs including rent, event costs, and other expenses related to organizing. Full expense reports are provided at each General Membership Meeting and a copy of our member-approved budget can requested by emailing glu1105finance@gmail.com.

State law mandates that graduate fellows are in the same bargaining unit as graduate assistants. However, the University believes that it is above the law and refuses to recognize graduate fellows as workers. We are currently bargaining with the University to address this violation. In the meantime, fellows are encouraged to sign up for Interim Fellows Dues here.

Typically, an employer is legally required to give a union necessary information about its members. This information includes things like your name, contact information, your job(s), and the department(s) in which you are employed. A union needs this information to help protect your rights in the workplace and to keep you informed. However, the University maintains it cannot comply with this aspect of labor law because we are graduate students, citing FERPA (Family Educational Rights Privacy Act). FERPA mandates that Universities protect the personal information about enrolled students and places limitations on the dispersal of this information.  Therefore, to have dues deducted, union members must waive their FERPA non-disclosure rights. Otherwise we can’t know your name, job, pay rate, or the amount of dues deducted from your paycheck. None of the information from your educational record (like grades or class schedule) will ever be disclosed to GLU.

Union membership rolls over semester to semester and over the summers if you are not employed. If you are not employed by the University over the summer months, you can remain a member in good standing by signing up for unemployment dues here.

Stopping dues and revoking union membership means you will not be eligible to participate in decision making processes within the union (example: voting for union leadership like the executive board, union stewards, and bargaining committees), run for office, or participate in membership meetings. By revoking your union membership, you are choosing to benefit from the labor of fellow grad workers without contributing to the collective success of the union. If you decide that you would still like to resign your membership and benefit from the work of other graduate workers without contributing, notify the union in writing by sending an email to local1105@ueunion.org. A member of the finance committee will assist you in the multi step process of resigning membership.

When you graduate, you are responsible for revoking your membership as outlined above. If you graduate and take another public sector job in Minnesota, you can and will continue to contribute dues to UE Local 1105 unless you revoke your membership.

No.