University of Alaska and graduate student union reach three-year contract

A new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) between the University of Alaska and the Alaska Graduate Workers Association-UAW Union (AGWA-UAW) took effect on July 1.

This is the first time the University of Alaska and AGWA have negotiated a CBA. The agreement comes less than a year after University of Alaska graduate student employees voted to form a union.

One of the main areas the CBA focused on was new salary minimums for graduate student employees. Master’s students will now receive a minimum of $24.50 per hour, while Ph.D. students will receive $29.

Graduate student employees who work in Student Assistant 1 and 2 positions also received an increase. Student Assistant 1 positions will now earn a minimum of $17.50 per hour. Student Assistant 2 positions will earn $18.50 an hour.

These new salaries apply to students regardless of the UA campus they work at. The increase took effect on July 14, which was the first full pay period of the 2025 fiscal year.

The agreement also covered other benefits, such as a 100 percent fee waiver of consolidated and infrastructure fees. Healthcare benefits will also remain the same and shower access at UAF will be extended to all AGWA-UAW members and their dependents.

Interim financial secretary of AGWA-UAW, Ph.D. biology student and research assistant at UAF Abigail Schiffmiller, said the union was pleased that they were able to reach an agreement with the university.

“In general, we made huge strides in all of the areas that were critically important to our membership, based on their feedback from various surveys and things,” said Schiffmiller. “And we also made strides on other things that we weren't necessarily as focused on either.”

Salary increases were a critical area, Schiffmiller said, but another important issue they made progress on was a switch from at-will employment to just-cause employment for graduate student employees.

Another change was an updated grievance procedure that included a final step where parties can go to a neutral third-party arbitrator. 

“Previously, any grievance procedures within the university, the end of the line was the president of the university who made the final decision,” said Schiffmiller. “We saw that as an inherently biased system.”

Schiffmiller was also pleased that they were able to reach an agreement with the university in such a short time, a sentiment echoed by Jonathon Taylor, the director of public affairs at the University of Alaska.

According to the university, the contract took 96 days of bargaining. This allowed the agreement to be submitted before the end of the legislative session. It’s an achievement that Taylor said is notable.

“The fact that we were able to get a contract agreed to in just 96 days was a real testament to the work that our bargaining team did,” said Taylor. “They worked several 12 hour days over that final weekend to try to come to agreement.”