Chants of union power echoed across Fairfield Way the morning of Sept. 10, 2025, as the University of Connecticut’s chapter of the Graduate Employee & Postdoc Union (GEU-UAW 6950) held a rally commencing contract negotiations with UConn.
“The negotiations come amid Republican political and fiscal attacks on higher education at the federal level, and public education budget shortfalls resulting from fiscal guardrails at [the] state level,” read a press release from GEU-UAW 6950.
The GEU chapter at UConn is responsible for representing over 2,300 graduate and postdoctoral employees at UConn, including teaching and research assistants, according to the press release.
Union members and rallygoers gathered outside of UConn’s Student Union around 9:30 a.m. where organizers delivered speeches to the crowd. One speaker was Ben Stumpf, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Political Science, who spoke of degrading conditions in American higher education.
“Higher education is under attack,” Stumpf said. “By the bosses on this campus and the bosses in the federal government.”
Stumpf said that working conditions of graduate and postdoctoral workers directly influence the quality of education on UConn’s campuses.
“Our working conditions are our students’ learning conditions,” Stumpf said. “We keep the lifeblood of this institution going with our labor. We need a contract which reflects that.”
Another speaker, Lily Luo, organizing coordinator for the union chapter and a doctoral candidate in the Department of Political Science, spoke on the scope of the union’s efforts, emphasizing that GEU’s movements were not just about its members.
“This contract campaign is not just about me and is not just about the members of our union,” Luo said. “It is about the quality of education here at UConn. It is about the kind of university we would all be proud to be a part of. And it is about coming together to stand up for our collective rights.”
Luo spoke of violence committed against laborers in the United States, focusing on the intersectionality between that violence and federal policy.
“Labor rights have been under attack like never before,” Luo said. “Fellow workers have been raided and deported en masse, all while grocery and rent costs continue to rise. All while our government is cutting funding from lifesaving research and continuing to support the ongoing genocide in Gaza.”
Despite this, however, Luo said she is proud to be a part of a union fighting against these rights abuses and drew reference to UConn’s controversial changes to its large gathering and outdoor amplified sound policies following the arrests of 26 protesters on campus in April 2024.
“I am so proud to be a part of a union that stands up for free speech, that stands up for workers’ rights, that is brave enough to say enough is enough,” Luo said.
The rally moved to the fourth floor of the Student Union, where negotiations were to be held, as attendees chanted “the people united will never be defeated.” Shortly after arriving, rally goers were asked to cease chants and leave the building by a Student Union representative. The representative refused to identify himself.
Attendees dispersed following the request, as the elected bargaining committee entered into negotiations.
University Spokesperson Stephanie Reitz later said in an email to The Daily Campus that rally goers were disturbing the normal functions of the Student Union as they marched through its halls.
“The Student Union is a shared space in which students can gather, study, and socialize without undue noise or other interruptions,” Reitz’s email read. “About 60 people who had been demonstrating outside today on Fairfield Way in connection with the bargaining session moved inside the Student Union, where they continued to chant loudly in a manner that disrupted regular operations. Its representative had a cordial conversation with organizers to encourage them to move outside if they wished to continue with chants, and they chose to do so.”
Joshua Newbend, a second-year graduate student in the art and art history department, said that asking rally goers to leave the Student Union only proved the efficacy of the action.
“I feel that just shows that they recognize our strength and they don’t want us to show it, but we’re happy to show it to them any time,” Newbend said.
Union organizers had originally invited attendees to observe negotiations, but the request was denied by university officials, according to GEU-UAW 6950 President Grace Easterly.
“We invited observers to join us today, the university said no,” Easterly said to rallygoers.
Easterly elaborated on the dynamic of open negotiations in a statement to The Daily Campus released after the rally.
“In general, employers prefer having negotiations as closed as possible while we prefer having negotiations as open as possible because we value democracy and transparency,” the statement read. “UConn’s faculty and staff unions, AAUP and UCPEA, who are also bargaining, have agreed with the university on a set number of observers, which means a certain number of their members can sit in on their negotiations. Our local takes seriously our members’ right to see the progress of negotiations and are hopeful that we will be able to invite our own observers in soon to ensure a fully transparent process throughout our negotiations with the university.”
John Briseno, a sixth-year doctoral student in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology and marshal at the rally, said that there is a specific reason employers wish to keep negotiations as closed as possible: information control.
“We want observers in there, we want anyone from our membership to be able to go in to see how and what and why the university wants to attack certain parts of our contract, whether that’s health care, wage raises, student fees, et cetera,” Briseno said. “If we don’t have open bargaining and it’s closed, membership gets a very edited, redacted, chopped-up version of what actually happens in the room. And the bargaining committee by law is not allowed to share with the membership what happened in there; they have to share the redacted, edited version.”
Reitz said in an email to The Daily Campus that the initial meeting on Sept. 10 was designed to negotiate ground rules to be agreed upon by both parties.
“As with many labor negotiations, representatives from the university and union may begin with discussion of ground rules, including whether observers are permitted and if so, the parameters that determine the number of observers allowed per session, advance notification requirements, and other details,” read Reitz’s email. “Today’s meeting was the first session in this cycle with GEU, and the parties hadn’t yet had the opportunity to meet to set those rules.”
Negotiations are scheduled to continue later today at 10 a.m. according to GEU, with actions and events planned to continue through the coming months.
“Our union is fighting for UConn. We are fighting for a future at UConn,” said Stumpf. “We need to stand together, all graduate students, all postdocs, all faculty, all students and demand to build a campus that we need and deserve. A campus that is committed to its mission which is education for a better future for all of us. That’s what we’re fighting for. Solidarity is the only way to get there.”