UChicago Grad Students Don’t Have to Pay Dues to Anti-Israel Union

The University of Chicago’s student labor union, Graduate Students United – United Electrical (GSU), has historically allocated graduate student dues towards funding antisemitic initiatives, such as GSU’s controversial support for the Boycott, Divest, and Sanction (BDS) campaign, which is a pro-Hamas movement seeking the destruction of Israel. Through the courageous actions of several students fighting the labor union leadership, UChicago graduate student employees can now file a religious exemption to redirect their GSU dues to a non-religious 501(c)(3) non-profit organization of their choice. While GSU is still restricting students’ choice to non-religious nonprofits, at least the religious exemption provides students with greater autonomy. With a step-by-step template authored by a group of UChicago PhD candidates, readers can click the link below to review the instructions on how to file a religious exemption from GSU.

Link to Template & Filing Instructions

GSU presents itself as an apolitical labor union with a mandate to represent the interests of all graduate student employees. However, it has embraced controversial positions that cater to a small subset of its members, meanwhile alienating the interests of many other graduate student employees. GSU has and continues to violate students’ civil liberties as well as their First Amendment rights, forcing students to contribute labor union dues to organizations that endorse partisan, anti-Israel initiatives. Unfortunately, withdrawing from GSU is not a viable solution either because graduate student employees are still forced to pay an equivalent “agency fee,” leading to the same result in the end – funding antisemitic initiatives that violate many students’ religious beliefs.

Moreover, GSU funds and supports organizations that threaten the survival of the State of Israel. Last academic year, GSU doubled down on its antisemitism by linking arms with the “UChicago United for Palestine Coalition,” an organization responsible for the pro-Hamas encampment and hostile takeover and occupation of the Institute of Politics on UChicago’s campus. This partnership reveals that GSU supports pro-Hamas demonstrators who chant “From the river to the sea,” which is, in reality, a call for the elimination of the State of Israel. By endorsing this slogan, GSU directly violates Jewish people’s religious values because the connection between the Jewish people and the land of Israel is central to Judaism. It also reveals that GSU condones the pro-Hamas encampment’s distribution and use of contraceptives, a direct violation of Christian religious beliefs. On that account, Hamas poses a serious threat to Judeo-Christian values, and it is deeply concerning how pervasive Hamas’s ideology has become, indoctrinating students and faculty within many of America’s institutions of higher learning.

In response, a cohort of graduate student employees have successfully found a method to restore students’ First Amendment rights via submission of a religious exemption. GSU deliberately makes the filing process bureaucratic to make it a less compelling proposition. Filing a religious exemption begins with a written letter addressed to members of the University of Chicago and GSU. The letter asks individuals to briefly discuss their religious beliefs, and then explain how GSU violates them. Once the letter is written, the template prompts students to follow a specific set of instructions. After this, students must obtain approval from GSU regarding which charity organization they can redirect their dues to. One of these organizations includes Magen David Adom (MDA), one worth mentioning due to the challenges UChicago graduate students faced when selecting MDA as their charity of choice.

Initially, GSU denied student requests to redirect their dues to MDA, claiming it violated the non-religious restriction. For context, MDA is Israel’s national emergency medical, disaster, ambulance, and blood bank service. GSU’s rejection of donations to MDA reveals its hypocrisy: while GSU approved student donation requests to the Red Cross and Red Crescent, it denied student donation requests to MDA – even though MDA too is a non-religious EMS service. Clearly, GSU is actively working to harm Israel, even at the expense of innocent civilians by denying medical support for those in need. Ultimately, do not be afraid to stand up for your causes, especially when faced with institutional opposition.

This exemption has now paved the way for UChicago graduate students to freely exercise their civil and First Amendment rights. We extend much gratitude to the UChicago students who stood up for themselves, enabling all students to regain agency in the causes they choose to support. We are no longer obligated to pay dues to GSU, allowing graduate students to redirect their money to a cause of their choice, one that supports their interests.