Issue & Grievance Updates

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a grievance? A grievance is a formal complaint or dispute raised when an employer violates a worker’s rights, breaches a union contract, or breaks workplace laws and safety rules.
What counts as a grievance? A lot of violations can count! Some common examples are:
- being asked to work over 18 hours per week during the academic year (Article 4)
- not receiving stipend payments or not being compensated according to rates in the CBA (Article 8)
- not receiving the health insurance stipend or being charged fees not covered by your funding package (Articles 9 and 12)
Are you unsure if something counts as a grievance/ just need to talk to someone about an ongoing workplace issue?
- Email us! fordhamgraduatestudentworkers@gmail.com
Having a problem with your Fordham bill or scholarship?
- Email us! fordhamgraduatestudentworkers@gmail.com and CC gsas@fordham.edu and studentaccounts@fordham.edu

Here are some past issues/grievances FGSW worked to resolve:

Request access to this spreadsheet for detailed updates or reach out to the Legal Specialist for CWA Local 1104.

Select Grievances

What GSWs and the Union are Facing

_{Termination & retaliation}

_{Abusive/untenable supervision}

_{Termination of GAships/GSC}

_{Funding being reduced after the fact}

^{Tuition compensation disappearing, resulting in debt}

_{Pay problems}

_{Public Safety used against workers}

_{Tuition not waived but turned to debt, debt sent to collections}

What the Record Shows

_{A worker who had filed a grievance faced a threat of termination.}

_{Union proposed an alternative supervisory arrangement rather than simply sending the worker back into the situation.}

^{Fordham terminated the only two GSC graduate assistantships, threatening substantial graduate-worker funding.}

^{A worker’s originally promised funding package was reduced after they served in a certain GAship.}

^{Fordham stopped renewing full tuition-credit scholarship compensation for Master’s students and, in some cases, PhD students.}

_{Workers were partially paid and the pay schedule was changed without notice at the beginning of the academic year.}

_{The record includes a worker who had filed a grievance later being arrested by Public Safety for being on campus as a “former student.”}

_{A worker’s tuition bill (which should have been waived) was sent to debt collections.}

Lead Negotiater & Result

_{Preston: negotiated a settlement with multiple weeks of severance pay + an employment-attestation letter.}

_{Preston: negotiated a settlement with multiple weeks of severance pay + employment letter.}

_{Preston: negotiated a settlement preserving the two GAships worth roughly $86,220 annually allowing workers to regain control of GSC funds which are more than $200,000 annually.}

_{Preston: resolved.}

_{Preston: regained 50% of the tuition funding. through informal resolution. Continuing to look at legal avenues for consumer/student debt protection and organizing.}

_Molly:

^{Preston: worked with criminal defense & charges were dismissed}

_Preston: _{informally negotiated retracting the debt from collections and waiver of tuition and fees as well as no fees from debt collection or negative credit reporting}