PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Penn’s campus has been a hotbed for union-organizing in the last few years, and that won’t change in 2024. Graduate student workers will vote to unionize on April 16 and 17, and they already have support from elected officials and unions across the city.
A coalition of 30 elected officials and a host of unions signed a statement demanding that Penn bargain in good faith with unions already in place on campus, and stay out of the way of ones trying to form.
“Unions belong because we all do our best work, our best research and teaching and support work, when we have the resources that we deserve,” said graduate student worker Luella Allen-Waller.
Allen-Waller and others are preparing to vote on whether to join GETUP-UAW (Graduate Employees Together at the University of Pennsylvania — United Auto Workers), which has also repped student workers at Harvard and Columbia.
Penn initially tried to get 1,000 graduate workers disqualified from voting before settling for 300 in front of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) last November.
“So we say ‘enough,’” Allen-Waller said. “Enough division. Enough confusion. We call on Penn management to stay neutral in our election.”
Letter by Coalition of Workers at Penn
The issue is personal for state Rep. Rick Krajewski, not only as a former organizer but also as a Penn alum.
“All these workers are what make the University of Pennsylvania, the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania the world-class institutions that they are,” he said. “If this is a world-class institution, why are we not paying world-class wages? Why are we not giving our workers a world-class contract?”
In the letter, the coalition called on the university to stop its “pattern of union-busting,” noting that the university has circulated anti-union propaganda in the past and delayed elections and negotiations. Resident assistants voted to join OPEIU Local 153 last fall but are still negotiating their first contract.
“While they have tentatively agreed to eight of our basic proposals, they keep postponing any discussion whatsoever over two key proposals concerning compensation and room and board,” said resident assistant Shaashi Ahlawat. “The most challenging part of this process, however, has not been negotiations, but fair bargaining.”
A spokesperson for Penn said the university agreed with the previous NLRB ruling and encouraged all eligible graduate workers to participate in the upcoming vote.