GOLD-UE Bargaining Update

Dear Dartmouth community,  

I am writing to address news of a planned strike by Dartmouth's graduate student union, Graduate Organized Laborers of Dartmouth-United Electrical Workers Local 261 (GOLD-UE). We understand that GOLD-UE has voted to strike effective May 1.  

Graduate students are valued members of our community and play a significant role in our academic and research mission. To date, we have reached 18 tentative agreements and addressed each of their proposals, often multiple times. We have listened to graduate students' concerns, as expressed by GOLD-UE, and offered solutions that we hoped would reach the widest number of graduate students possible while balancing the needs of our broader community of undergraduates, faculty, professional students, and staff. For a summary of Dartmouth's current proposals, please see our Economic Proposals FAQ. 

GOLD-UE represents a bargaining unit that consists of all graduate students enrolled in Dartmouth degree programs who are employed to provide teaching and research services. GOLD-UE will likely ask that all members of the bargaining unit participate in the strike; however, the decision to strike or not remains strictly an individual one, and the union cannot force graduate students to go on strike.

Our goal is to reach a fair and equitable contract as soon as possible. Dartmouth has offered multiple opportunities to add bargaining sessions this week, including one that will take place today, in the hope that we can avert a strike and finalize our agreements. In addition, we have offered to engage an independent outside mediator who can participate in our bargaining sessions and help the parties reach a mutually beneficial agreement.

Dartmouth is strongly committed to providing the best education to our students and supporting our research projects. We have been developing plans with faculty and staff to ensure continuity in these activities and have developed an FAQ to help answer any questions you may have about the strike. We will keep you informed as new information becomes available. 

I appreciate your patience and understanding as we navigate this situation together. 

Sincerely, 

David Kotz
Provost