Coalition of Graduate Employee Unions


The Coalition of Graduate Employee Unions consists of unions representing graduate employees at universities in Canada and the United States. The coalition formed in 1992 and each year it organizes a yearly conference at which representatives from graduate employee unions come together to teach and learn from each other about organizing, negotiating contracts, tactics, and mobilization of members. In past conferences, the delegates spent part of one of the days on the picket line in with a group of striking workers in the city hosting the conference, but this has not occurred in recent years. In the period between conferences CGEU provides a forum for graduate employee unions to share information with each other, and maintains a website with information about graduate employee organizing.
The coalition is made up of locals from many different international unions, such as: the American Federation of Teachers, the United Auto Workers, the Communication Workers of America, UNITE HERE, United Electrical Workers, National Education Association, American Association of University Professors, the Service Employees International Union and the Canadian Union of Public Employees, as well as some number of independent unions.

Conferences

The 16th annual CGEU conference took place in the summer of 2007 in Amherst, Massachusetts and was hosted by .
The 21st annual CGEU conference took place in the summer of 2012 in Vancouver, BC and was hosted by CUPE 2278 and the Teaching Support Staff Union.
The 22nd annual CGEU conference took place in the summer of 2013 in Iowa City, IA and was hosted by COGS.
The 23rd annual CGEU conference took place in the summer of 2014 in Montreal, QC and was hosted by AGSEM.
The 24th annual CGEU conference took place on August 5–8, 2015, in Amherst, MA and was hosted by Graduate Employee Organization at University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
The 25th annual CGEU conference will take place on August 13–16, 2016, in Los Angeles, to be hosted by UC Student-Workers Union at University of California, Los Angeles.