There's a lot of advice circulating for new grads—how to prep a research agenda, how to get through methods training, how to balance work and life, and so on.

Let me offer a different piece of advice: join your graduate labor union. Here's why. 1/

If you're a TA, RA, lecturer, or otherwise doing work for your institution—or if you anticipate doing such work at any point during your time in grad school—you are a university employee. You deserve fair pay and a safe workplace. 2/

Unfortunately, these most basic rights may not be provided to you.

Grad workers at UW–Madison have health insurance—not because the university gave us health insurance, but because we won it during a strike in 1970. 3/

Grad workers at UW–Madison have a handbook of policies and procedures that apply across departments, providing a basis for equitable treatment.

The university didn't give these to us. We won them in 2019 after years of work by student activists. 4/

The "we" here is grad workers, collectively, led by @TAA_Madison, our graduate labor union. Pay raises? Delays on segregated fee payments until after the 3rd paycheck of the semester? No more stealing seg fees out of research awards? That was the TAA. 5/

Individual grad workers can, and do, fight for better treatment on their own. But alone, this work is exhausting. That's by design, so folx are eventually convinced to go back to their research, put their heads down, & take what they can get, no matter how little. 6/

Together, we pool our strength. We spread out the labor of fighting, engaging, organizing. If everyone does a little, no one has to do a lot, and we achieve more (see aforementioned wins—& we've got so much more in store). 7/

By joining our graduate labor union, we invest in each other and build a community that is there for each other when times are tough.

Because we already have an organized union, the TAA is able to provide mutual aid to workers during COVID-19. 8/

In short, your graduate labor union is a source of support, institutional knowledge, and power to improve working conditions for all grads. If your campus has a union, join and get involved!

(Shameless plug: http://taa-madison.org/join/ ) /fin