FAQ

What is DGSU?

The Duke Graduate Students Union is an organization of graduate students dedicated to improving our working conditions here at Duke. We have existed since 2016, and have won many improvements since then, including guaranteed dental care, stipend increases, protected gym access, and more.  In August 2022, after a yearlong campaign, we won formal recognition from the National Labor Relations Board, allowing us to formally bargain with the university towards an employment contract. We then bargained a contract (collective bargaining agreement) over 20 months, which we ratified on September 1, 2025. We are the largest graduate worker union at a private university in the south, and the second largest non-public employee union in North Carolina.

How is our union structured? 

The day-to-day operations of DGSU happens at Organizing Committee (OC), where our elected officers and any interested members plan and carry out the work of the union. DGSU also has standing committees: comms, fun, and solidarity. All are open to all graduate workers at Duke. The backbone of our union, however, are department stewards: PhD student workers who have committed to represent the union to their peers, work to problem solve with their collegues, and do the organizing work necessary to make ours a strong organization. The stronger our membership, the more we can advocate for better pay, benefits, and working conditions!

All PhD students are welcome at any of our meetings and events, at any time. The meetings targeted at the most broad audience are our general body meetings, which happen monthly. We also have a disorientation event at the beginning of the year targeted at all new students, and monthly trainings for department stewards. 

What does it mean to be a member of the union? What benefits do I get?

Being a union member means you have a voice in our organization, and a vote on the contract that we negotiate together. Our parent union SEIU has also negotiated access to significant discounts on airfares, rental cars, and more: if you are a union member, sign up here.

Are there dues associated with becoming a member?

In any union, dues are negotiated as part of the contract, which allow the union to sustain itself and continue to fight on behalf of workers. SEIU’s Southern Region has some of the lowest dues in the county, which are capped at 1.5% of salary or $50 per month, whichever is lower. Our current contract contains a historic 6.25% annual pay raise that covers the cost of our dues more than 4 times over. Our dues go to pay for staff who help us negotiate the contract and resolve issues, the software we use to run the union, events programming, and efforts to organize other workplaces in our union (such as other universities, as well as industrial laundries, textile factories, coffee shops, climbing gyms) before they bring in their own dues.

Why do I have to sign up? I thought I was already a union member.

In much of the South, corporations have heavily lobbied for so-called “right to work” laws, which require that every worker actively choose to join the union, instead of all workers being automatically enrolled. This is part of a concerted effort to weaken worker power. The only way to overcome their efforts is to ensure that we all educate each other about the importance of joining. The path to a strong contract is simple: staying united, with as strong of a membership base as possible.

I want X in a contract. How can I get involved in bargaining?

Let us know! Our current contract expires in 2028, but we are still soliciting feedback for the next round of bargaining.