Graduate student workers at Dartmouth College, part of the GOLD-UE union, began striking Wednesday morning. “Dartmouth has the opportunity to end this strike,” said Logan Mann, an engineering graduate student at the college. “At any time by simply using their enormous wealth to support the workers who produce their research and teach their classes.” Mann is part of the union bargaining committee. He said both sides were at the negotiating table Tuesday night, but it didn’t get anywhere, so with overwhelming support, the workers went on strike. Their picket line will be marching on the Dartmouth Green every day until the two sides can reach an agreement.“We’re out here to demand a living wage. Cost-of-living adjustment is tied to rent in the Upper Valley, dental insurance, child care and much, much more,” Mann said. The Graduate Organized Laborers of Dartmouth was officially founded last year and represents over 800 graduate teachers and researchers on the Ivy League campus. Ever since the founding, organizers have been negotiating a new contract with the college’s administration for an increase in wages brought from $40,000 per year to $53,000. The union representatives said two-thirds of graduate student members are rent-burdened and need better health care benefits. “We’re really eager to get back to the classroom and back to the labs,” Mann said. “We truly love our job, and that’s the reason we’re out. We want to be able to do our job under conditions that lift all of us up and make sure that we’re all safe, healthy, housed, fed.”The Dartmouth provost, David Kotz, issued letters to students and faculty to address the ongoing situation.“To date, we have reached 18 tentative agreements and addressed each of their proposals, often multiple times,” Kotz wrote. “We have listened to graduate students’ concerns, as expressed by GOLD-UE, and offered solutions that we hope would reach the widest number of graduate students possible while balancing the needs of our broader community.”On the green Wednesday, some other students workers on campus showed their support for the grad students. “We hope the Gold strike will show not only the visibility of graduate students, but the inherent value that they bring to our campus, how integral they are in its functioning,” said Hosaena Tilahun. “Whether they show up as teaching assistants, mentors to undergraduates and just members of the broader Dartmouth and Hanover community.” The two parties have another planned bargaining session scheduled for Friday.