Signing up to be a dues-paying member of your union means choosing to join a majority of your coworkers in signing up for membership. Strong membership is essential to building a strong union; high membership demonstrates to USC administration that Graduate Student Workers are united and ready to exercise our rights, and it ensures that Graduate Student Workers, through our union, can effectively pool our resources together and improve our working conditions.

Members, and only members, have a voice in shaping the union’s priorities, electing and running for union leadership, and participating in union committees.

Take some time to read about the major gains made in Graduate Student Workers’ first union contract: the result of years of organizing and the collective action of thousands of workers.

Generally, any Graduate Student Worker (GSW) at USC holding an appointment as a Teaching Assistant, Research Assistant, Assistant Lecturer, or internally funded STEM fellow will be eligible for membership in the union.

PhD students on fellowship in the social sciences or humanities, and PhD students on external STEM fellowships, are also eligible to become dues-paying members in the union. Because USC does not currently consider you to be covered by the contract, out-of-unit fellows are signing up to pay “solidarity dues,” currently set at $15 per month.

Dues are union members’ financial contribution to the operation of the union and to the union’s capacity to advocate for change. Membership dues are important because they provide the resources necessary for our union to be effective. 

Dues are critical for providing our union with independent resources that are not controlled by the University: GSWs will use them to ensure we have appropriate legal, bargaining, community and staff support to support all Grad Student Workers. Dues are also important in that they allow GSWs to pool our resources and level the playing field – USC takes in billions of dollars in revenue every year, and pays wealthy anti-union law firms to handle its employment disputes. 

To learn more about the many pro-worker causes that our union dues support, check out the “Dues in Action” section at the bottom of this page! 

UAW membership dues are currently 1.44% of gross monthly income and can only be increased by membership action (the membership in a few local unions, for example, have voted to increase dues above 1.44% to have more resources). There is also a one-time initiation fee of $10.

In our first contract, Graduate Student Workers won the right to pay our member dues through a simple and straightforward process. All GSWs have to do to pay union dues is opt into dues deduction on the second page of the membership form. This authorizes USC to deduct union dues from your paycheck, by far the easiest way to pay dues. 

Paying union dues and signing up for union membership are optional. However, all Graduate Student Workers in the bargaining unit will pay 1.18% of their gross monthly income in the form of agency fees. Because everyone in the bargaining unit must receive all of the benefits of the contract, non-members will be required to pay a comparable “fair share” fee. This is because union contracts must benefit everyone and everyone is entitled equal protections.

All bargaining unit members must opt in or opt out of membership by April 10th, 2024. Every bargaining unit member who signs up for union membership and authorizes payroll deduction will have membership dues of 1.44% and an initiation fee of $10 deducted from their April paycheck. Every bargaining unit member who does not elect to become a member before April 10th, 2024 will have an agency fee of 1.18% deducted from their monthly paycheck starting in April. To officially opt out, fill out the agency fee form.

A majority of GSWs are signing up to be members and pay union dues rather than the agency fee, because strong membership is how we enforce the protections and benefits that we won in the contract.

Yes. Anyone can change their membership status at any time. To sign up as a member, simply fill out the membership form. If you want to change your membership status otherwise, you can reach out to your department steward or send an email to info@uaw872.org to set up a meeting for this.