Daniel Firak, SBU RAU Organizer

1 May 2026

On January 28, 2026, Research Assistants Union (RAU) at Stony Brook University had their contract ratified in a major victory: a contract mostly without concessions, and a raise of 50% to the base salary over a span of 30 months! This was the result of a long fight that we describe below for our readers. 

Research Assistants in the State University of New York System are employed by the SUNY Research Foundation (RF), a private non-profit that manages federal grants. This strange arrangement of privately hired researchers for a state university caused plenty of disruption and miscommunication, leading the bargaining to take over two years to be fully finalized.

Over a hundred workers rally on campus, visiting locked and empty offices of administrators during the November 20th rally. [Photo courtesy: SB Statesman]

Bargaining: Year 1

The first bargaining session was on January 24, 2024, where a small team of researchers from the organizing team of the RAU, together with representatives and lawyers from the CWA, met with the RF’s bargaining team – a hodge podge of RF lawyers and representatives from both the RF and SBU campus. From the beginning, it was clear that the RAU team would have their work cut out for them: with so many variables in the equation, and with NY State, RF, and SBU all shifting responsibility to each other, holding the RF accountable for their work was the main challenge. 

For most members of the RAU bargaining committee, these were uncharted waters. Sitting down with representatives from your employer, so far detached from the day to day research work at labs and offices and yet claiming authority over your pay and working conditions, was a tense and uncomfortable experience, but a necessary one for the cause of all graduate workers. With guidance from CWA staff, the team quickly understood their situation: their old contract (which, admittedly, was the first contract – aimed at setting a starting point for improvement) had no salary minimum, no international worker protections, vague and unenforceable health and safety, no enforceable workload restrictions, and overall a vague grievance procedure. To win the contract that RAs deserve would take work.

But the union was willing to put in the work! Trading weekends for planning days, and time with their families for 5 hour meetings with RF lawyers, for two entire years, while still dealing with issues on campus, and their own PhDs, the bargaining team eventually showed the RF that they were no longer dealing with the old contract team, and that they were not talking to students (as they so much like to insist): they were now dealing with the collective power of workers at an ever-increasing organizing potential.

After the first few months, progress slowed down. The RF immediately proved unwilling to move even on the non economic articles, including our proposed improvements on non-discrimination and the use of preferred names and pronouns. Some of this was blamed on technology – “our system cannot have a preferred name/pronouns field” – and some of it was sheer stubbornness on keeping the terms of the old contract. 

Securing provisions of timely pay was also a constant issue throughout most of the two years of bargaining. And all of this was happening during normal course of operations on campus, meaning that while the RAU had to convince the RF during bargaining that late pay and wage theft was indeed happening, they also had to try and solve late pay grievances. Sometimes these cases would reach the desks of members of the RF bargaining team, who had denied, the week before, that this was an actual issue.

With May 1st, 2024 approaching, RAU’s organizing team got to work planning an escalation. The first challenge was that the RAU was not a “known” union on campus: for the most part, RAU were working together with their sibling union, the Graduate Students Employee Union (GSEU). Convincing workers that RAs had their own union, and their own workplace issues separate from the Teaching Assistants and Graduate Assistants (TA/GAs), and that those issues had solutions that were not up to their principal investigators (PIs, i.e., research supervisors) was the first battle. 

That battle was unquestionably won on May Day, when despite widespread fear of police repression (only a few weeks before, several members of our campus community had been unjustifiably and illegally arrested over pro-Palestine protests on campus), a few activists got together and marched through campus, going through the administration building and the offices of RF personnel on campus (in an obscure corner of the library). They were met with tremendous resistance. Air resistance, that is – as expected of admin, they were not working. RAU organizers and activists marched through empty cubicles during a workday. Well, that is not exactly true: they were confronted by one brave finger-wagging staff member who popped out of their cubicle, finger ready to wag in an imposing manner, with sharp words of “Nuh-uh! You are not supposed to do this here!”, as we were already reading towards the exit (which resulted in absolutely nothing changing on the march). That brave RF soldier will be forever remembered as the finger-wagger: a symbol of what was to come – ineffective and pretentious behavior aimed at silencing workers, coming from administrators making sometimes over ten times more than the workers that they dared wag their fingers towards.

While a fun anecdote, even this small action – a few tens of workers walking through empty cubicles – moved the scales heavily on bargaining. Tentative agreements were reached on many of the non-economic articles immediately after the rally. That was all that the bargaining team needed to hear: if we mobilize, we win. Or in CWA's terms: When we fight, we win. So we had to fight. 

While articles were moving through, the RAU team had small actions to involve members outside of the committee, boosting membership and engagement. But the big fight was yet to come: how to address the economic issues faced by RAs at one of the worst-paid universities in the public sector?

Smaller actions, such as dressing the university mascot statue in a union shirt (this one with the QR code to the letter), keep the presence of the union felt throughout the long years of bargaining.

Bargaining: Year 2

The second year of bargaining was to dot the i's on the non economic, and to get a good deal on economic issues. With a small organizing team, this was the time for organizing to shine: dividing efforts from just a handful of organizers and mobilizers into an effective wage campaign, to turn what seemed like an impossible goal into a real contract. Here just activism wouldn't work. Shouting our lungs out in front of the administration building only goes so far without proper organizing.

So we organized: data tables, social media strategy, extensive economic research, legal documents, New York State law, outside outreach and networking. Every member of the bargaining team became a full team of its own. Geoscientists now knew labor law and social media tactics; microbiologists knew all the details of health insurance costs; nuclear physicists could tell you the stipend and cost of living of any university across the country in a heartbeat. Every action had a goal and a target. Not all of them hit, and the misses were heavy. Faced with actual opposition, the RF tried to block communications between RAU and the campus. Conversations on the bargaining table were going nowhere. Conversations outside the table were being blocked. The team was stretched thin. Then May Day 2025 comes in. Nearly a hundred people show up. Where previous smaller actions failed on turnout, May Day showed that workers on campus were there, and were angry.

May Day again moved things on the bargaining table, bringing a few notable victories. Professional Development was expanded to a fund that would benefit RAs and PIs alike, and even during a hostile time, RAU secured a strong international worker protection article. But the key detail remained – as soon as economics were mentioned, the RF offer was “3% for incumbents, take it or leave it”. Our informal campus minimum was $32,190.00 for 12 months. To live in Long Island, where the cost of living can easily be more than double this amount. 3% didn't cut it, and the RF's offer wasn't even 3% to the minimum, but to incumbents, ensuring that in a few years, all RAs would still suffer from extreme poverty wages.

In August, a new university president was elected - Andrea Goldsmith. The RAU team received her with a kind letter, signed by almost 700 members of the SBU community – Research Assistants, Teaching Assistants, Graduate Assistants, Fellowship holders, undergraduate students, faculty, staff, etc. – asking for support in bargaining, and more clear communication with the campus administration and the RF. While a big victory in signatures, the rally to deliver the letter had neither the numbers nor the threat. And even though Pres. Goldsmith knew we were coming, she did not receive the letter herself, instead sending another admin (who took it as a personal affront to her rank when we demanded to meet the President). The letter might not have even reached the President, as at another event she seemed unaware of it.

To any organizer, mobilizer, or other union comrade, you should know that blows like this will happen. Some actions, even important ones, can fail to meet expectations. Do not be discouraged. It was a blow for the RAU, and hopes were at an all time low, but when the working condition of thousands is on the line, and arguably the future of research in your institution, surrender is not an option. If people engaged with the letter, but not the delivery, it's because something was amiss. So the RAU used its organizing knowledge, looking over the data: who came to the rally, who didn't; what departments; how were we talking with them; and most importantly, how can we engage the workers and show them that we can win. The contract campaign was already long and members were exhausted. Asking them to show up en masse would require more effort, and a different type of effort.

If workers were willing to sign a letter, we could get them to click a link. So social media and email campaigns were started. Social media had broader reach than those already familiar with the union – we could mount pressure on multiple fronts with only a few organizers. The emails were also organized campaigns, all emails sent at once so they are harder to block, with messages and targets pre-drafted: you needed only to click a link and sign it. Several hundreds of workers sent emails to the Board of Trustees and Board of Directors, in the span of a few minutes, to their personal emails. Even hundreds of postcards were signed with personal messages from exploited workers, to be sent to admin’s houses. Workers showed that they would not be silenced, and a new cry started: SHUT IT DOWN! All that action and anger culminated on November 20th, a last in-person rally, on a cold day. RAU desperately needed the workers to show up.

And show up they did. Over a hundred workers and community members showed up on a cold November afternoon, rallying behind our slogans. They were willing to chant their own calls for change, and march once again through RF and SBU admin’s offices, with mugshots of top SBU admin and their salaries, and with pointed threats – unless things change, we’ll be here every day, and we will shut things down. This time, there was no finger wagging. Their offices were closed. So the hundreds of workers saw: while we work underpaid, they take November vacations on high six figure salaries. We ended with a campus-specific rendition of Solidarity Forever. In total, this rally took over two hours on campus, walking through high stairs and thin corridors (thanks to our mobilizers who ensured accessibility, guiding those in need through accessible pathways so no one would be left behind). The march attracted plenty of eyes from the community and the media. 

All of a sudden, the campus wanted to talk with us. They wanted to talk about what a fair wage would be. So the RAU team showed them the figures, and to their shock and surprise, they realized that 2026 is not the same year as 2021 (when the campus did their last economic survey for graduate workers). Of course they knew this already, but now the campus knew that this would no longer stand. And like magic, the RF came up with a new economic proposal: no longer 3% for incumbents, now we were talking about an 18% increase for the base stipend immediately (upon ratification), and a further increase on July 2026, and every July thereon until the end of the contract, totalling a 50% increase in only 30 months. All the talk of “we spoke with our directors and 3% is all we can afford” was no more. We took some minor concessions, especially over retirement accounts and minor benefits that would not hurt the membership much, but they are vastly outweighed by the wins of this contract.

Graduate workers deliver the letter with over 600 signatures to President Goldsmith… Which she is not there to collect.

The Contract: What did We Win?

To try to explain all the victories here would require a full history of our previous contract. Instead, I will list a few of the key victories that don't require a 5 year stay at Stony Brook to understand. Starting off with what you want to read: the minimum biweekly pay will increase from the previous rate of $1,238 to:

• February 1, 2026: $1,461
• July 1, 2026: $1,564 
• July 1 2027: $1,692 
• July 1 2028: $1,846 

With an additional bonus up to $1000 on February 1st. Professional Development Funds to attend conferences were also doubled, and can now be used for all aspects of a conference (meal, transportation, lodging,...), not only the fee.

Workload was also codified on the contract, with protections for international workers, and stipulations over the nature of the work: reasonable fluctuation of workload can happen, as is the nature of research, but they are fluctuations, i.e. the average must remain within contractual limits.

Health Insurance got codified on the contract, securing the 90% employer contribution of the RF and a requirement to bargain any potential adverse changes in health insurance coverage.

International workers now have protections for visa renewal, as well as extra funds for SEVIS fee reimbursement. International workers can also receive their pay before having a Social Security Number, no longer being required to work months without pay upon coming to the country.

RAU also secured a best-in-industry Health and Safety clause: RAs may refuse to work in an environment or operate equipment they reasonably deem a danger to themselves or the public.  They will only be required to return to said location or equipment after the Environmental Health and Safety office has cleared it as safe. 

Conclusion

Organizers, mobilizers and union activists, especially for those currently bargaining or soon to bargain over a contract, know that the fight might not be easy, but you, and all workers at your site, have the responsibility to fight. Know that unguided activism will only take you so far, and that the true strength of the working class comes from collective organizing. Organizing is not always as glorious as hundreds of people showing up to the employer’s office: most of the time it's crunching numbers and planning over long meetings. Know that the other side sees it as their job to keep you down, and they are handsomely paid for this. But they are few, and you are many – make sure that they know that, and that you can make this count.

And to the occasional employer or administrator that might read this article: listen to your workers and to your unions. The organizing team knows where you work, where you live, your phone number, your personal and work email. We know your supervisors and their supervisors. We are thousands at the low end, and when we fight, we win. Don't dare try to repress us, or subvert our work, and not expect resistance. And if you face the wrath of a workforce of thousands you are keeping in poverty, make the smart move and give up, for the unions will not.