GRADUATE STUDENT APPRECIATION WEEK
Throughout Penn’s “Graduate Student Appreciation Week” (4/3-4/7), GET-UP released testimonials from graduate student workers on multiple issues they’ve experienced while at Penn, and what a union could do to help solve them. You can see a recap of the issues discussed during the first week here and during the second week here.
The donuts from “Graduate Student Appreciation Week” may be gone, but we’re going to keep on releasing issues for the next week. Today, we’re explaining why grads want a contract:
- Petition for a Fair and Democratic Union Election (3/23/2017) - GET-UP invites all members of the University of Pennsylvania community, including graduate workers, undergrads, staff, and faculty, as well as supporters of union democracy throughout the City of Philadelphia and beyond, to join us in this petition asking that the university remain neutral as we move to certify our union in an election. Text of …
Continue reading "Petition for a Fair and Democratic Union Election"
SUPPORT FROM PENN FACULTY
Statement of Faculty Support for GET-UP efforts:
As faculty members of the University of Pennsylvania, we welcome efforts being made by GET-UP to unionize the graduate student workers (GSWs) in our university. We believe that graduate students have the right to unionize, a right confirmed by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). GET-UP has been active in organizing a union for over a decade now, and while their earlier effort was stymied by the then NLRB, recent NLRB rulings have allowed them to revive their mobilizing drive.
WHAT IS GET-UP?
GET-UP is not just a group of graduate students, a campaign to be recognized as employees, and a venue for grievances: we are a union. A union is both a community of interest that unites for the purposes of collectively bargaining a contract and a collective of people who have each other’s backs. We believe that a contract produced by collective bargaining could address general and specific issues facing graduate students, as well as guarantee more democratic avenues for grads to participate in the institution.