Thousands of Stanford Grad Students Call Off Strike After Last-Minute Deal

Updated 3:30 p.m. Wednesday

Stanford graduate students have called off a strike planned for Wednesday after reaching a tentative contract agreement with the university, avoiding major disruptions in the final weeks of the academic term.

It will be the first contract for the Stanford Graduate Workers Union, which has been negotiating with the university since last November and represents more than 2,000 master’s students and doctoral candidates who teach or conduct research for the school.

SGWU leaders announced last week that they would halt work on Tuesday unless an agreement was reached, threatening to disrupt classes and research work similar to the weekslong graduate student strike throughout the University of California school system in 2022.

The strike was postponed a day in an attempt at an 11th-hour agreement, then canceled late Tuesday night after the union announced it had reached a tentative deal.

“We were able to get sufficient movement from Stanford to reach a tentative agreement this evening on a complete contract that we can recommend,” the bargaining team said in an email to union members.

Stanford spokesperson Luisa Rapport confirmed Wednesday that a tentative deal had been reached.

“A tentative agreement came through the dedicated efforts of both bargaining teams and many long hours of discussion at the negotiating table,” she said in a statement. “We thank the members of both bargaining committees for their efforts in reaching this agreement.”

Union workers have been pushing for higher pay, more comprehensive benefits and guaranteed funding for doctoral students. While the bargaining team said they had made progress on healthcare and immigration support, compensation was a sticking point as the planned strike neared.

Although the bargaining committee recommended the deal, leaders acknowledged that there were some concessions made to reach an agreement.

Some members “are not very happy, specifically with the wage offer,” said Shantanu Nevrekar, one of the union’s bargaining committee members. “And we have not tried to hide the fact that we think that this is not the best offer we could achieve.”

The union had said Stanford’s offer of $53,908 wasn’t sufficient to afford to live in Santa Clara County, where a livable wage is closer to $68,620. It proposed a minimum compensation of $58,840, followed by annual increases of 4% and 3.5% for the following two years.

The tentative agreement includes a minimum salary of just over $54,000 for graduate students working at least 20 hours a week, with annual wage bumps over the next two academic years to reach $58,460 by fall 2026.

“Now, we have a current wage rate that exceeds the rent increases for all of the years of the contract,” Nevrekar said.

The university also agreed to publish on-campus housing costs for the next two academic years, changing its practice of releasing them in the spring for the following academic year. It also committed to continuous five-year funding for Ph.D. students.

The parties also agreed to drop current unfair labor practice charges filed against each other and committed to not filing such charges for the duration of the contract.

“We did have major disagreements, of course,” Nevrekar said, “but both sides were very civil in approaching this process.”

Graduate workers will vote on the contract, which must be ratified before Nov. 22 to go into effect. If it does, it will be valid through August 2027.

Nevrekar said he believes the deal will help undergraduates too. He pointed to a provision covering $1,200 for international students’ visa fees, noting that many undergraduates are international students who also struggle with administrative fees in the visa process.

“I see a very real possibility that this could lead to a ripple effect,” Nevrekar said. “More pressure on Stanford to ensure that it makes the experience of international students and national graduate workers more equitable.”