Enforceable Protections
The Union’s Proposal…
ensures that discrimination, harassment, and bullying protections are enforceable through the union grievance and arbitration process—the standard mechanism for enforcing every other part of a union contract. Graduate workers can choose to pursue a grievance if they are dissatisfied with UVM’s Office of Equal Opportunity (OEO) process, providing an independent path to accountability. The proposal complements, rather than replaces, UVM’s existing policies and procedures.
The University’s Proposal…
explicitly excludes discrimination and harassment complaints from the grievance and arbitration process. Graduate workers are left with only UVM’s internal procedures, with no independent avenue for enforcing their contractual rights if the University’s process fails to resolve the issue.
Meaningful Workplace Protections
The Union’s Proposal…
defines discrimination, harassment, and bullying in the contract, ensuring these protections cannot be weakened unilaterally. It recognizes failures to provide disability accommodations as discrimination, guarantees interim supportive measures during investigations, and protects access to all-gender restrooms, lactation spaces, and prayer spaces. It also explicitly protects transgender, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming graduate workers.
The University’s Proposal…
does not define discrimination, harassment, or bullying in the contract, contains no disability accommodation language, provides no guaranteed supportive measures during investigations, and makes no commitments regarding restroom, lactation, or prayer spaces.
Union Representation and Accountability
The Union’s Proposal…
ensures graduate workers are not left to navigate discrimination and harassment cases alone. The Union is notified promptly of complaints (unless the worker requests otherwise) and can support members throughout the process. By allowing grievances to proceed to neutral arbitration when necessary, the proposal provides an independent check on the University’s handling of complaints.
The University’s Proposal…
does not require the Union to be notified of complaints and leaves resolution entirely within the University’s own internal offices. If a graduate worker believes the process was mishandled or the outcome was inadequate, there is no contractual mechanism for independent review.
Why This Matters
A workplace protection is only meaningful if it can be enforced. Graduate workers teach classes, conduct research, mentor students, and help secure millions of dollars in research funding for UVM. Yet after nearly two years of bargaining, the University continues to reject the standard contractual protections that workers at many peer institutions—and even other unionized employees at UVM—already have. We believe graduate workers deserve a contract with real, enforceable nondiscrimination protections, not policies that rely solely on the University’s discretion.