Frequently Asked Questions

The federal law which protects the right of employees to decide whether or not to organize or engage in collective bargaining. It also prevents unfair labor practices by employers and unions.

A union is an organized association of workers, usually in a particular trade, formed to negotiate with employers over matters related to wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment.

All PhD students enrolled at Emory University in the Laney Graduate School at its Atlanta, Georgia campus who provide instructional or research services for Emory University, including teaching assistants, research assistants, teaching associates, instructors of record, graders, and Biomedical Engineering PhD students whose advisor holds a primary appointment at Emory University and who receive all of their funding from Emory University.

Biomedical Engineering PhD students whose advisor does not hold a primary appointment at Emory, nursing PhD students who are simultaneously employed by Emory in another capacity, PhD students who are self-funded, PhD students on approved leaves of absence (except as provided in Article 36: Support Funds and Article 37: Leave of Absence Medical Support Fund), all students not working towards PhD degrees offered by the Laney Graduate School and all other employees, office clericals, managers, guards and supervisors as defined in the Act.

No, graduate students are not obligated to become members of the union.

Unions are funded exclusively by workers through dues and initiation fees. For more information on dues paid by SEIU Southern Region members, visit www.emoryunite.org/faqs.

Georgia is a right to work state, which means bargaining unit members cannot be required to join a union or make payments to a union as a condition of employment. However, bargaining unit members may be required to pay fees for union services.

“Membership” in the Union is about your rights and responsibilities to the Union itself. The CBA governs your employment relationship with Emory University. You should discuss Union membership with the Union directly.

Under the National Labor Relations Act, you are responsible for Union “fees” if you are a member of the bargaining unit. CBA Article 7: Union Security and Check-Off requires that the University deduct Union fees from your paycheck if the University possesses your written authorization to do so.

The same article states that you may revoke this authorization. To revoke authorization, you must send written notice to the Union. Once the University receives written confirmation from the Union that your authorization has been revoked, the University will no longer deduct fees from your check.

Your status in the bargaining unit is defined by the Collective Bargaining Agreement, Article I: Recognition and Bargaining Unit Description. Included in the bargaining unit are all PhD students enrolled at Emory University in the Laney Graduate School at its Atlanta, Georgia campus, who provide instructional or research services for Emory University, with limited exceptions. PhD students who are NOT in the bargaining unit include, but are not limited to, (1) students whose advisors do not hold a primary faculty appointment at Emory University and (2) students whose stipends and health insurance premia are either self-funded or funded by an outside sponsor (e.g., a foreign government).

If your advisor is a member of the Emory University faculty and your stipend and health insurance premiums are funded through Emory, you are generally included in the bargaining unit. You may still be included if you receive supplemental funding, such as a scholarship for top-off payments, from another university or outside organization. Supplemental awards of this kind do not change the source of your primary stipend or health insurance funding.

Funding administered by Emory is considered an Emory University source of funding. This includes grants made to the University in which a faculty member, staff member, or student is a PI or Co-PI.

Examples of Emory sources of stipend funding include but are not limited to: (1) Direct funding from LGS or another Emory school, and (2) contracts and grants that are managed by the Office of Sponsored Programs. Examples of non-Emory sources of stipend funding include but are not limited to: (1) Direct funding to the student by an agency of a foreign government or (2) Self-funding. To give a more concrete example, a student whose stipend is funded in part by a National Institutes of Health F31 award is receiving funding from an Emory source. The same applies to a student whose stipend is supported by a National Science Foundation grant for which the student’s advisor serves as principal investigator.

A rule of thumb is that if your stipend is paid to you directly from Emory University, it comes from an Emory source.

Research service: Work performed by bargaining unit members under the direction of a supervisor that directly contributes to the production of generalizable scholarly knowledge associated with an Emory faculty or staff member is considered research service. Bargaining unit members typically perform this work as research assistants.

Teaching service: Work performed by bargaining unit members under the direction of a supervisor that directly contributes to instruction at Emory is considered teaching service.

RTA is the acronym for “Research and Teaching Appointment.” When you are assigned to a job that provides either research or teaching service to an Emory University faculty or staff, you will receive an appointment letter via the Laney Connect Hub. According to Article 17 of the CBA, the appointment letter must include important details of the assignment including:

• Appointment title and reporting requirement mandated by law or University policy
• Effective starting date and ending date
• Appointing unit contact and supervisor
• Assigned duties
• Expected hours or workload and work schedule
• Amount of funding for work, if applicable
• Work location
• Other terms required by Article 17 of the CBA

Not necessarily. If you provide research or teaching services, you will receive an RTA. If you are not providing research or teaching service, you will not receive an RTA.

There is a natural connection between the TATTO program and teaching service. Generally, when you enroll in TATTO 605 or TATTO 610, you are taking an experiential learning course and you are providing teaching service. There is one exception to this rule. The first time that you enroll in TATTO 605 (or TATTO 610 should you enroll in TATTO 610 before TATTO 605) you are not considered to be providing teaching service under the CBA. Therefore, in this one instance, you will not receive an RTA, unless of course you are simultaneously providing research service.

Yes, you may hold more than one RTA in a term. When a bargaining unit member is appointed to multiple positions during a semester, the University issues one letter per individual appointment.

An RTA is not an academic record. Academic enrollments reflect the courses, research credits, or other credit-bearing activities in which you are enrolled. These enrollments are documented in your academic records. Your RTA records document your work under the CBA. They are stored in the Laney Connect system, and you can access them at any time.

1. The funding source for my stipend?

   Yes. Your funding source is one factor used to determine whether you are included in the bargaining unit. See Questions 1 and 2 for an explanation of Emory and non-Emory funding sources.

2. The duties I am assigned?

   Yes. The CBA covers qualifying research and teaching services. It does not cover work that is primarily administrative.

   For example, organizing a lecture series, coordinating conference logistics, or compiling information about practices at other universities generally would be considered administrative work rather than research or teaching. A student may be hired to perform administrative work, but the assignment would not be governed by the CBA and would not result in an RTA letter.

3. The number of hours I work?

   No. The number of hours worked does not, by itself, determine whether an assignment is considered research or teaching service.

   However, once an assignment is covered by the CBA, provisions regarding workload limits and compensation apply as described in Articles 13 and 15, respectively, of the CBA.

No. You are in the bargaining unit if you are eligible to provide research or teaching service, and you otherwise satisfy the requirements for inclusion. Thus, if you would be in the bargaining unit when you are appointed as an RA or TA, then you are in the bargaining unit even if you are not currently appointed.

The CBA generally applies to you; however, not every aspect applies. For example, when you are not appointed to a bargaining unit job, you will not have access to vacation leave, since you have no job from which you would need vacation. Taking courses or otherwise pursuing your degree through academic effort is not bargaining unit work. This effort involves your role as a student. Of course, like any student, you will be able to take advantage of all university breaks and holidays as indicated in the academic calendar here.

To summarize, the CBA may apply to you differently, depending on whether you hold a research or teaching appointment.

You can find a copy of the CBA at the EmoryUnite! website and Emory University’s union information website.

If you believe that your RTA needs to change or you believe that there is an error in your RTA letter, you should contact your supervisor as well as the Director of Graduate Studies (or Program Director) of your program. Of course, you are always welcome to contact the Union.

Different questions may require different contacts.

Contact the appropriate University office for administrative questions:

• Supervisor, Director of Graduate Studies, or Program Director – Questions about your appointment, assigned duties, supervisor, role, workload, appointment dates, or other program-specific matters.
• Human Resources (HR-CBA@emory.edu) – Questions about university administrative processes related to the CBA.
• LGS Finance (lgsfinance@emory.edu) – Questions about your stipend, funding, payroll, payment issues, or the source of your funding.

Contact your union steward or emoryunite@emory.edu when:

• You have questions about your rights under the CBA
• You have questions about how to interpret or apply a provision of the CBA
• You believe the CBA has not been followed
• You have concerns about your appointment, workload, compensation, leave or other rights.
• You would like representation or assistance resolving a workplace issue
• You have questions about union membership

Collective bargaining is the process by which a union and an employer negotiate the terms and conditions of employment, including pay, benefits, and working hours for all members of the bargaining unit.

Collective bargaining is generally conducted in a series of meetings at which representatives of both the union and the employer exchange written proposals for a CBA. Federal labor law requires that parties who collectively bargain engage in good faith negotiations, meaning that the union and the employer meet, confer, and consider each other’s proposals with a genuine desire to reach an agreement.

Representatives of both the University and the union participated in the bargaining process. On the University's side, labor relations professionals, administrators, and faculty members participated. The union selected its own bargaining team, which included PhD student leaders, members, staff, and representatives of SEIU Southern Region.

The parties began negotiating in April 2024. An initial collective bargaining agreement was ratified in September 2025.

The university will comply with the explicit provisions of the CBA for all members of the bargaining unit.

The CBA details the benefits to which you are entitled in your employment status. Among others, your benefits include health insurance (Article 26), professional development funds (Article 34), holidays and leave provisions (CBA Articles 28 and 29).

The CBA also provides four funds to support medical assistance and financial hardship support, dependent support, international activity support, and the leave of absence medical support should you take a leave of absence. You are also eligible for leave of absence medical support should you take a leave of absence. CBA Article 35: Support Funds describes three of these funds: (1) Medical Assistance and Hardship Support Fund, (2) Dependent Support Fund, and (3) International Activities Fund. CBA Article 36: Leave of Absence Medical Support Fund describes the fourth fund that you may be eligible to access.

In addition to what is provided by the CBA, Laney Graduate School emergency loans are available to help students through unexpected financial crises, such as illness, family job loss, and delays in other types of funding.

The maximum loan amount is $1,000. A student who receives an emergency loan must sign a promissory note agreeing to repay the loan within 89 days of issue. Emergency loans are interest free for the 89-day period.

Visit the Emergency Loan information page on the Laney website for more details. The University offers both an emergency loan and a hardship fund. However, the hardship fund is not available in the summer term.

Article 28 of the CBA covers leave provisions. Leave includes:

• Vacation leave and sick leave: Bargaining unit members may accrue 10 vacation days and 6 days of sick leave per year, subject to accrual and carryover provisions in Article 28. These vacation and sick days are separate from University holidays and academic breaks, which are governed separately under the CBA.
  Article 28 also indicates that bargaining unit members may request additional leave beyond the minimum leave required by the CBA. The bargaining unit member’s direct supervisor may grant such requests at their discretion.
• Bereavement leave: Bargaining unit members have access to between three and ten days of bereavement leave, where the amount of leave is connected to the relationship between the bargaining unit member and the individual who has been lost, per the terms of Article 28, Section 6.
• Leaves of absence: Bargaining unit members may take leaves of absence, per the terms of Article 28, Sections 10 and 11.

In addition to these leave provisions, bargaining unit members have access to the LGS parental accommodation policy, described in Section 7 of Article 28.

If you currently hold an RTA, then yes, you are required to submit a request for leave. Vacation requests should be discussed with the supervisor as far in advance as possible, but no less than 14 calendar days prior to the dates upon which a bargaining unit member desires to take their vacation time off.

Bargaining unit members needing sick leave should notify their supervisor as soon as practicable.

Students holding covered RTA positions must use the Graduate Student Exempt Leave System to request and document the minimum leave covered by the CBA. The System will track the CBA minimum leaves. Unit members and supervisors should agree in writing to any leave granted in addition to the CBA minima.

If you do not hold an appointment, you may take advantage of University holidays and all breaks from LGS. You may take a leave of absence, as well. You may not take vacation or sick leave as you do not hold a job from which you could take a leave.

To implement the leave provisions of the CBA, PhD student bargaining unit members appointed to Research and Teaching Appointment positions must submit time-off requests using the Graduate Student Exempt Leave System.

This system is the official mechanism for requesting, routing, approving, and documenting leave covered under the CBA.

This requirement applies to:

• Vacation leave
• Sick leave
• Bereavement leave

You can find detailed instructions on how to use the system here:

• Student Exempt Leave Training Video
• PowerPoint overview (download)

Yes, international graduate students are eligible to be in the union.

No. The CBA does not change a student’s immigration requirements or work authorization obligations. However, work performed in a bargaining unit position counts toward applicable F-1/ J-1 work limits. International students with questions about visa status, work authorization, travel, or immigration-related time off should consult International Student and Scholar Services.