The Research Assistant’s Union serves to represent graduate student research assistants within the SUNY system, negotiating contracts for research assistants every three years to raise wages, improve health insurance and ensure better working conditions.

Employed by the SUNY Research Foundation, members of the RAU are not paid directly by the University like those represented by the Graduate Student Employees Union, despite both being under the parent union Communication Workers of America.

The RAU said on their website that despite their critical involvement in conducting research, running labs, teaching and assisting students, research assistants are still paid below a livable wage and face inadequate working conditions. An RAU organizer told Pipe Dream their organization is dedicated to supporting workers who are trying to get their degree and make a livable wage in the process.

“We want to standardize pay for a lot of the folks that we represent,” said the organizer. “We want to standardize benefits. That would be a huge goal.”

Research assistants are present in labs across campus, compiling and assessing data and writing reports. According to the union’s website, these students are not making nearly enough in wages to support themselves.

“It’s a pretty small wage, even to be living in Binghamton,” they continued. “Again, granted, I can’t necessarily speak to everybody’s situation, but being hit in the beginning of a semester with $400 in fees, $160 parking pass, as well as just the things that come with being a graduate student, trying to pay for conferences, trying to pay for poster printing, like, these are all things that we have to pay for.”

The conversation about workers’ rights within the SUNY system has a long history. Last winter, the Graduate Students Employee Union, another branch of the CWA, organized a protest on the BU campus, arguing in favor of more livable wages. With graduate students often expected to work primarily on campus, they argued the stipend provided is insufficient to support them while they finish their schooling.

“We’ve been bargaining for almost a year now, and it was going relatively okay until we get to the part where we discuss salaries,” explained Andrey Darovskikh, PhD ‘26. “And so currently the proposal that Research Foundation is giving us is the minimum salary secured in the contract that is currently even lower than the actual salary of the research assistants at Binghamton.”

Fair wages have become an increasingly important concern among the working class in New York. Roughly 48 percent of families in New York State are not bringing in enough income to afford basic living expenses. In Broome County, 43 percent of families are unable to cover necessities despite working.

“So currently, the stipends of TAs and GAs is $25,000 for 10-month contract,” said Darovskikh. “You cannot live on $25,000 in Broome County. The living wage in Broome County, I think, is like $38,000. And research assistants, if they’re on 12-month contract, can make a little bit more, around like [$27,000] to $29,000, but that’s obviously not enough.”

Outside of working to raise wages to help with growing costs, the RAU supports students in securing other necessary workers’ rights.

“Currently we have in the bargaining process leave for international students,” said the organizer. “So if folks have to renew their visas, their jobs will be kept safe while they are gone. We have some conditions in terms of reimbursement.”

The RAU is also taking strides to support research assistants who have faced underrepresentation in terms of their pay and benefits. The organizer and Darovskikh agree that, even with progress being made in obtaining fair contracts for RAs, there will always be work that needs to be done.

“In general, the work of the union, it changes over time, but it’s never necessarily done,” said the organizer. “Take a look at GSEU. GSEU, they fought hard, and they got their first contract.”