Temple University and striking graduate students reach tentative agreement

Temple University has reached a tentative agreement with the union representing its 750 graduate student teaching and research assistants after an 18-day strike that began Jan. 31.

The agreement includes wage increases in all four years of the contract and a one-time payment effective this month, according to an announcement on the university’s website. Graduate students will retain free health insurance for themselves, the university said, but it made no mention of insurance for dependents, which the union was seeking.

No details on the amount of the wage increases were available Friday night.

Members of the Temple University Graduate Students Association are scheduled to vote on the tentative pact over the next few days.

“We’re thrilled to reach a deal with TUGSA that is fair to the union and fair to the university and we look forward to welcoming all the graduate students back into the classroom,” said Ken Kaiser, senior vice president and chief operating officer.

Graduate students would get their benefits and tuition remission restored and would be able to return to work, Kaiser said.

Although the university said Friday night the union agreed to withdraw pending claims of unfair labor practice against Temple for its actions during negotiations, TUGSA said in a statement Saturday that the unfair labor practice claims remain active and the union remains on strike until a new agreement is ratified. The administration, the union said, offered a contract counterproposal on Friday and the union’s negotiating team agreed to put it before members.

“Members will now have the chance to vote on this counterproposal,” contract negotiation team member Haroon Popal said in the statement. “The collective membership makes decisions and we will continue with that process as we have through this entire year of negotiating.”

The tentative agreement follows two full days of negotiations that began after 1,000 students, faculty, and supporters held a walkout and rally on campus Wednesday, calling on the administration to give graduate students better pay and benefits.

The union and the administration have been negotiating for more than a year, but until recently remained far apart on wages and benefits. It was the first strike in TUGSA’s approximate 20-year history.

» READ MORE: Striking graduate students feel the toll of Temple's tactics but remain steadfast

The average pay for a teaching and research assistant at Temple is $20,700 a year, according to the most recent numbers from the university, and the union had sought to raise it to over $32,000, an increase that it said was a necessary cost-of-living adjustment. The university had been offering 3% raises over the four-year contract.

The union also had been asking the university to pay for health insurance for students’ dependents. Temple had been paying the full costs for students, but nothing for their families.

It was one of few strikes at the university. The last strike, by the university’s nurses, happened more than a decade ago. The Temple Association of University Professionals, the faculty union, hasn’t gone on strike since 1990.

The strike took on a divisive tone after the university decided to withdraw tuition remission for the striking graduate students, telling them they must pay their spring tuition bills in full by March 9 or face a $100 late fee and the inability to register for future classes. The school also stopped paying for their health insurance, which at first caused a panic among students who found themselves temporarily cut off.

» READ MORE: Temple withdraws tuition remission for graduate students

While the university has said only 20% of graduate students went on strike — the union contended it was twice that amount — there was some disruption of classes for those whose instructors did walk out. As of Wednesday, the university still had five to eight classes that remained without instructors. Many of the classes had been moved online to accommodate the schedules of new instructors and to deal with reported intimidation of students and instructors, the university said.

The unrest at Temple came amid increasing calls for better pay for graduate students nationally and followed strikes at several other colleges, most recently the University of California. The University of Pennsylvania last semester passed a nearly 25% increase in its minimum pay for doctoral students — the largest onetime boost in the school’s history. Starting in 2023-24, the minimum stipend will rise from $30,547 to $38,000.

Some of Temple’s peer colleges pay graduate students more. At Pennsylvania State University, graduate assistants with 20-hour-a-week appointments, 36 weeks a year, earn an average of $24,822 annually.

After the deal with the graduate student union is complete, Temple will find itself back at the bargaining table very soon, this time with its much larger faculty union. Its contract expires in October.