What is a Graduate Assistant?

A Graduate Assistant is a student enrolled in a graduate-level academic program who is employed by their university to assist in teaching, research, or other duties related to their course of study. At the University of South Florida, GAs may teach, conduct research, or have other responsibilities that contribute to the student's professional development. All graduate assistants employed by USF work under a contract negotiated by Graduate Assistants United (GAU) and the USF Board of Trustees. The GAU is the labor union certified as the exclusive bargaining agent for graduate assistants at USF.

Who is eligible to become a GAU Member?

Graduate Students at USF who are employed by the university as Graduate Assistants (Job Code 9185), Graduate Teaching Assistants/Associates (Job Codes 9183 and 9184), Graduate Instructional Assistants (Job Code 9550), and/or Graduate Research Assistants/Associates (Job Codes 9181 and 9182) are eligible for USF GAU membership. If you are unsure of your eligibility, please send us a message and we would be happy to help you find your eligibility status.

What is a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA)?

A CBA is a legally binding contract that sets our terms and conditions of employment, and our rights, benefits, and protections as employees at USF. It stipulates things like our minimum pay rate, our tuition waiver eligibility, our health insurance subsidies, our maximum number of weekly working hours, our right to grievances, our paid and unpaid leave benefits (including paid parental leave), and so much more. As the certified labor union for GAs at USF, we negotiate for this contract approximately every three years, meaning every three years we bargain for better benefits, better protections, and more rights (all well-deserved). Similarly, GAU is tasked with enforcing this contract, meaning if your rights are violated or you’re deprived of your legally given benefits, we are able to hold the university accountable and enforce compliance with the CBA to make sure that all GAs rights, benefits, and protections are being properly honored in accordance with the CBA and state/federal law. This CBA is only legally enforceable while GAU is certified as the labor union/collective bargaining agent for GAs at USF.

Give our CBA a read on the Our Contract page!

What is Florida Senate Bill 256?

In 2023, the Florida Legislature passed SB 256, which directly affects public sector unions such as GAU. The law requires all public sector unions (except for police, fire department, and correctional officer unions) to obtain 60% membership of their collective bargaining units to retain certification, and dues are no longer allowed to be deducted from your paycheck but rather through a process known as eDues; this makes it much harder for public unions like ours to achieve and retain the respect and dignity that our members deserve. If we do nothing, our contract and all of the protections we have earned are at risk. Become a member today and/or sign a Statement of Interest Card to help us fight for our right to bargain for the protections, benefits, and compensation we deserve.

Related: What is SB 1296?

SB 1296 was passed in 2026, it advances the restrictions of SB 256. This bill makes it so that if we do not have 60% membership density in our collective bargaining unit and must complete recertification elections, we must have at least 50% of the entire bargaining unit vote in the election for us to retain certification. Of that 50%, we need 60% to vote “YES”. If enough people don’t vote, we lose our union. It also places a 12-month expiration date on SOI cards, making it more difficult to collect and keep enough SOI cards to trigger a recertification election. Especially considering the issues we have faced in the past with our employer insisting that all recertification ballots be sent to campus (sometimes in the middle of summer when folks are not able to retrieve them), many folks receiving their recertification ballots late, and many never receiving them at all, we cannot count on our election results to save us. The only way to ensure that GAU survives to fight another day, and that our contract stays in effect and enforceable, is to reach 60% membership.

What is a Statement of Interest (SOI) Card?

An SOI Card is a card that a GA can sign that states that they are interested in keeping GAU as our labor union. It is not a commitment, and it does not sign you up for membership; it only expresses interest in keeping GAU around to fight for our rights at USF. If we are unable to reach 60% membership in the era of SB 256, we must collect SOI card from 40% of our bargaining unit (all GAs) every year to trigger a recertification election. During this election, GAs will vote whether or not we want to keep our union. For the past 2 elections, GAU has won with >97% of voters saying “YES” to GAU! However, this is not a long-term solution. It takes an incredible amount of work to collect these SOI cards and conduct these elections, the only long-term solution to keeping our union is to reach 60% membership.

What will happen if GAU is decertified?

If GAU is decertified, our collective bargaining agreement (CBA) will become null and void, meaning it is no longer be enforceable. This means that all of the rights, benefits, and protections we have fought and won over the past 45+ years will essentially be lost. Even if the university says they will honor the contract in the event of decertification, it is not possible to enforce it. This means that if they violate the contract terms, including changing our conditions of employment, paying us less than the CBA minimum, taking away our health insurance subsidy, abolishing tuition waivers, forcing us to work excess hours, etc, there is not much we can do to stop it.

Similarly, there would be no collectively negotiated GA job contract; instead, the terms and conditions of employment, benefits, pay, etc. may all have to be individually negotiated, if negotiation is permitted at all. Each individual person may have to negotiate and enforce their contract personally. This takes away the majority of our collective power as employees, granting the employer almost singular power to unilaterally decide benefits, job protections, and terms of employment.

Think about it: GAU grieves contract violations all. the. time. If we can’t trust the employer to treat their employees well, pay us fairly/on time/accurately, or enact discipline on itself when it violates our CBA or its own rules without significant union intervention now, how can we trust them to hold themselves accountable if there is no union at all? Among many things, the power of the union is the ability to hold the employer accountable, to ensure that no employee is exploited or mistreated, to level the playing field when faced with employee/employer or student/supervisor power dynamics, and to collectively demand better for everyone, even when the employer doesn’t want to give us better. Our power is in our people. Stand up and stand with us, together we can accomplish anything.

How much are the USF GAU dues?

Dues payments are required to become a member of USF GAU. Our dues are 1% of each paycheck and are billed on your biweekly payday on either a 9 or 12-month schedule. For most Graduate Assistants, dues are typically between $7-12 , depending on your stipend level. We now use a system called eDues for all dues payments, which uses a software called Plaid to verify payment details during the membership enrollment process. If you have any questions about the eDues process or need help signing up, please send us a message and a representative will be happy to assist you!

Why is it important to be a member of my union?

Graduate Assistants United is the only group at USF fighting for our rights, benefits, and protections as employees of the University. Without a Union, we would not have an enforceable contract granting us rights and benefits, we would not have a minimum stipend or guaranteed health insurance (let alone subsidized health insurance), we would not have grievance representation, and we would not be able to collectively bargain to improve our rights, benefits, and protections or hold the university accountable to these terms.

Having a Union means having power, and our power comes from our people. The more GAs who join GAU to stand together and fight as one, the more powerful we are and the more we can accomplish together! Joining GAU means becoming part of a community of GAs building a better future together. GAU is an organization built by and for graduate assistants; all of our leaders are USF graduate assistants. Our dues payments directly and solely support GAU in bargaining for a better contract, hosting community events for GAs, providing legal support for our members, and fighting for the future we deserve.

Especially now, joining GAU is CRITICAL to make sure that we keep our union and that we can continue the fight for fair pay, better benefits, and a better life. SB 256 mandates that we have 60% membership of all GAs at USF, or we are at risk of being decertified. We do not currently have 60% membership, and while we have historically been able to collect enough SOI cards and votes in our recertification elections to stay alive, there has been a consistent effort in the Florida Legislature since 2024 to change the rules for these card drives and elections to a level that would be insurmountable for us. Now that this effort has come to fruition, we are at a serious risk of losing our union and all of the necessary power that gives us to advocate for ourselves, our peers, and our students. Joining GAU means joining the fight to keep our rights, keep our dignity, and keep our union fighting for a better today and a better tomorrow. Join today.