No Carve Outs for Nondiscrimination!

Graduate workers deserve a workplace free from discrimination, harassment, and bullying. These are fundamental rights and we refuse to use them as a bargaining chip. Our proposal is not only compatible with UVM’s existing policies, it affirms and extends the University’s Common Ground values of respect, integrity, openness and responsibility. We offer the most vulnerable members of our graduate workers a clear path for navigating discrimination and harassment.

Since first presenting our nondiscrimination proposal in October 2024, we have pushed for contract language that not only aligns with UVM’s existing policies but also ensures graduate workers have meaningful, enforceable protections, including the right to grieve cases of discrimination, harassment, and bullying through the union’s Grievance and Arbitration procedure. Nearly two years into bargaining, UVM continues to refuse these standard protections. Rather than prioritizing the safety and well-being of graduate workers, the University has focused on limiting its own liability by blocking grievable nondiscrimination language. They continue to delay agreement on unrelated contract articles by insisting they include references to its proposed carveout, holding progress across the contract hostage.

A policy without meaningful enforcement leaves workers vulnerable and without confidence that their concerns will be addressed fairly. Graduate workers at UVM deserve the same contractual protections that exist at comparable R1 public institutions and which the faculty and the staff unions at UVM already have.

Graduate workers are essential to UVM’s teaching and research mission. We teach classes, mentor students, conduct research, and secure millions of dollars in grants that help sustain the University. We deserve a contract that guarantees dignity, respect, and enforceable protections from discrimination, harassment, and bullying. UVM must stop delaying and agree to meaningful nondiscrimination protections now. Anything less is shameful.