Graduate Employees Together-University of Pennsylvania (GET-UP), an affiliate of the AFT, has filed authorization cards with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for a union election. An overwhelming majority of Penn’s 950 graduate/student employees included in the proposed union signed cards calling for a certification election and on Dec. 27, 2001, filed their petition. An election will likely be scheduled this spring before the end of the 2001-02 school year.

In April 2001, AFT announced that it was launching an organizing campaign at the University of Pennsylvania; the union began its petition drive in October. The minimum stipend for graduate workers at the university is $12,500, although many individuals work for less than this amount. Health benefits and working conditions are also issues. At a well-attended rally held during Campus Equity Week (Oct. 28-Nov. 3), speaker after speaker drew rueful laughter from the crowd as they described the cycle of higher premiums and lower benefits that the university administration was foisting on its graduate employees.

Many graduate employees support families on their stipend, and international graduate employees are barred by visa restrictions from seeking other employment. Said Tina Collins, a teaching assistant in the Graduate School of Education, "We are very pleased with the results of our organizing campaign. The large number of students who signed authorization cards shows strong support for GET-UP." Added Collins, "We hope that the administration and other graduate groups will join us in making this a positive and empowering experience for everyone involved."

In October 2000, the NLRB ruled that graduate employees in the private sector--teaching assistants, teaching fellows, graders, administrative and research assistants--were employees entitled to the same right to be represented by a union as other workers. Since the NLRB decision, graduate employees at New York University have voted to unionize, and election results are pending at Brown University.

In March 2001, graduate employees at Philadelphia’s Temple University voted to be represented by AFT. Additional AFT organizing campaigns are building momentum in Pennsylvania, including one under way at Penn State University in State College, Pa. Nationwide, AFT also represents graduate employees at the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, Wayne State University, the University of Wisconsin at Madison, the University of Kansas, the University of Oregon, and City University of New York, among others.

GET-UP is an organization formed by graduate student employees from across the University of Pennsylvania to improve graduate student employee life through unionization. For more information go to www.getuponline.org [posted 3/25/02]