In March 2026, GSU-UE Local 1103 members at the University of Chicago won unprecedented victories against unfair dismissals. By mobilizing hundreds of members to their coworkers’ defense, the local won two discharge grievances for the first time — an important victory in a moment when basic workplace protections for graduate workers are under attack by university administrators across the country.
Since ratifying their first contract in 2024, Local 1103 has filed dozens of discipline and discharge grievances without success. Like many graduate worker unions across the country, 1103 is fighting against a university administration that claims all dismissals are “academic” matters, not work-related. By weaponizing this language to bypass union contract protections, the university has dismissed numerous workers who’ve subsequently lost their income, healthcare, and, in the case of international workers, their legal right to remain in the U.S. Until now, the university’s label of "academic discipline" has been an effective procedural excuse to shut down any challenge to dismissals, even in cases of blatant employer misconduct.
In December, a faculty supervisor in the Biological Sciences Division (BSD) dismissed a graduate worker, Jermaine, and falsely claimed that he had left his laboratory position voluntarily. This was the culmination of a pattern of misconduct: the supervisor had denied Jermaine’s contractual right to flexible work hours and ignored his requests to resolve the issue for over a month. When Jermaine finally did secure a meeting, his supervisor admitted the silence was “revenge,” verbally attacked him for over an hour, and dismissed him from the laboratory two days later without warning or just cause.
Because the timing of the dismissal made an immediate transition to a new lab impossible, Jermaine and his workplace area stewards launched a grievance campaign to protect his funding and the worker status he needed to find a new supervisor and prevent his complete dismissal from UChicago. Over the next few months university admins rejected Jermaine’s proposed remedy at every step of the grievance process, so stewards escalated the pressure. They gathered hundreds of petition signatures across the BSD (including two-thirds of workers and one-third of prospective applicants in Jermaine’s department), launched a letter-writing campaign targeting high-level supervisors, connected with student groups to organize campus community support, and organized a march on the boss for Jermaine’s final grievance meeting in mid-March.
Meanwhile, in early March, stewards were alerted to yet another egregious case. Daniela, an international graduate worker from Bolivia, had been navigating chronic health issues and increasingly severe hospitalizations while continuing to perform her research, schoolwork, and teaching duties. With the full approval and support of her faculty supervisor, dissertation committee, and medical care team, Daniela began preparations for a medical leave of absence, acting on verbal assurances from BSD admins that the leave would be granted. In a sudden and devastating reversal, BSD admins suddenly called Daniela into a meeting to deny her medical leave and inform her of imminent dismissal in just 11 days, with no opportunity to appeal. This would have immediately terminated Daniela’s F-1 visa, stripping her of her legal immigration status, income, and ongoing medical care. University admins even offered to pay for her plane ticket back to Bolivia, provided she book her flight before the day of her dismissal. Daniela, her faculty supervisor, and her dissertation committee were completely shocked and blindsided.
With less than a week left, Daniela’s workplace area stewards were alerted, filed a grievance, and mobilized to build upon the momentum of Jermaine’s fight. In under 24 hours, over 800 people across campus, from union members to faculty, signed a petition demanding the university drop Daniela’s dismissal and grant her an extended medical leave of absence. In parallel, Daniela’s faculty supervisor and dissertation committee also took the rare step of writing a formal letter to BSD administration protesting the university’s decision of dismissal.
On March 12, just one day before their scheduled dismissals, Jermaine and Daniela each met with university admins for their final grievance appeals. In both meetings, union stewards set out to dismantle the university’s claim that dismissals are purely "academic" matters beyond union jurisdiction. Stewards maintained that these were workplace rights violations, meaning the university could not dismiss these workers without proving just cause. When admins attempted to flip the burden of proof onto the union, the sound of over 100 union members rallying outside Jermaine’s meeting provided a powerful rebuttal. Faced with a coordinated uproar, hundreds of petition signatures, and faculty solidarity, the university finally backed down. The very next day, both dismissal cases were halted: Jermaine won a quarter of additional funding to transition to a new faculty supervisor, and Daniela won her quarter of medical leave to recover her health without the threat of deportation.
These victories marked the first time that Local 1103 has successfully grieved and overturned graduate worker discharges. In the face of consistent excuses and shameless pressure tactics, membership collective action showed university management that their unwillingness to negotiate in good faith was creating a crisis ready to spiral out of their control unless they conceded. This win not only saved two jobs but demonstrated the strength of collective worker power, ensuring campus-wide exposure of the university’s tactics and educating hundreds of workers on the need to defend the vital just cause protections in their contract.
“These fights underscored that the protections of our contract depend on our ability to mount an organized community response to contract violations,” said steward Max Bogan, who played a key role in the grievance campaign. “Jermaine was an incredible self-advocate and had detailed documentation of the contract violations he experienced, and the University was still ready to fire him without just cause. Seeing dozens and then hundreds of our coworkers come together to show support, demand change, and force the University’s hand was really powerful.”