Why join GAU? Because there is strength in numbers!
Your membership helps all graduate employees
GAU works hard to get you yearly raises, end fees, improve health insurance and childcare, and everything else. But at the end of the day, we are only as strong as our membership is! When you join GAU, you send a message to the University administration that you care about these issues and others that affect your working conditions. If we have all 4,000 graduate employees at UF behind us, they will listen! All of our major victories, such as getting full tuition waivers, affordable health insurance, and fee relief, coincide with periods in time where we have high membership.
As with any labor union or professional organization, membership in GAU entails dues. All graduate employees benefit from the contract in that all graduate employees receive full tuition waivers, free health insurance, and all the rest, whether they are GAU members or not. But by becoming a dues-paying member, you contribute your fair share to the work that GAU does on your and your colleagues’ behalf, and you invest in improving those rights and benefits for yourself and future generations of graduate employees. Membership is open to all graduate employees, including international students. If you work here, then we work for you!
Membership in GAU also entails membership in the United Faculty of Florida (UFF), which is affiliated with the Florida Education Association (FEA), the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the National Education Association (NEA), and the American Federation of Labor – Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO). These other organizations advocate on behalf of organized labor and public education at the state and national level, fight lawsuits that UF-GAU does not have the resources to fight on its own, and provide various other means of legal support, liability insurance, and so forth. They also provide professional training in union work such as collective bargaining and filing grievances. This access to professional support is critical to our long-term viability!
As with any labor union or professional organization, membership in GAU entails dues. All graduate employees benefit from the contract in that all graduate employees receive full tuition waivers, free health insurance, and all the rest, whether they are GAU members or not. But by becoming a dues-paying member, you contribute your fair share to the work that GAU does on your and your colleagues’ behalf, and you invest in improving those rights and benefits for yourself and future generations of graduate employees. Membership is open to all graduate employees, including international students. If you work here, then we work for you!
Membership in GAU also entails membership in the United Faculty of Florida (UFF), which is affiliated with the Florida Education Association (FEA), the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the National Education Association (NEA), and the American Federation of Labor – Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO). These other organizations advocate on behalf of organized labor and public education at the state and national level, fight lawsuits that UF-GAU does not have the resources to fight on its own, and provide various other means of legal support, liability insurance, and so forth. They also provide professional training in union work such as collective bargaining and filing grievances. This access to professional support is critical to our long-term viability!
