Reply #1: yeah why would they need union protections?

[daveskilt]

My wife, for instance, has taught at both a state and a private university while a masters, and then PhD student. She taught more classes than a full tenure professor would. She was teaching both upper division classes, (usually for tenured track professors) and freshman classes (far more work with all the grading of badly writen papers). More work than any tenure track professor making $60,000+ per year all while taking a full course load of classes, and publishing papers, and presenting at conferences like any professor would.

For this she earned less than $12,000 per year with a tuition waiver worth an additional $18,000. Now this part is fair since she did not have the degree yet and was paying her dues to get there. Fair enough.

BUT while working she could not get health insurance. Also when she became unexpectedly pregnant, not only was there no maternity leave, but she lost pay for the rest of the semester because of the 2 weeks she did not teach and had a sub (she worked up until the friday before our daughter was born 3 days later.)

grad students aren't looking for anything extreme, just basic stuff that they could have had if they had dropped out of high school and got a job. Basic benefits so that they can work and graduate.