Anti-sweatshop group jumps in union debate

Penn Students Against Sweatshops, notorious for advocating labor rights, this week pledged its support for the right of graduate students to unionize in a letter sent to University President Judith Rodin and other administrators.

The letter, sent Tuesday, came in response to an e-mail Deputy Provost Peter Conn sent out last week to 10,000 of Penn's graduate and professional students, urging them not to sign membership cards with Graduate Employees Together-University of Pennsylvania without first considering possible negative outcomes of unionization.

GET-UP has been working to organize a union at Penn since last spring.

PSAS first gained recognition in February 2000 when it staged an eight-day sit-in at College Hall in protest of the University's policies towards companies that manufacture Penn apparel.

And when PSAS learned of Conn's letter, the group quickly wrote a letter to urge the administration to "adopt a position of neutrality" in regards to GET-UP's campaign. The letter went on to call Conn's e-mail and a "Frequently Asked Questions on Unionization" page on the University's Web site "neither appropriate nor neutral."

Conn denied that such action on the part of the administration was inappropriate.

"These are very important questions -- the community will ultimately decide them," he said. "On such a question when information and opinions are being distributed by all sides, it is absolutely appropriate for the administration to be communicating with its students."

He also disagreed with PSAS's assertion that the University had stepped outside the bounds of neutrality.

"These differences are honorable differences, they are sincere differences and they are complicated differences," Conn said. "Neutrality doesn't signify that I, or anyone else... has no opinion. ÿIt signifies a commitment to a free and unrestrained discussion."

In its letter, PSAS also called on the University to sign a card-check neutrality agreement, which would allow the union to forgo the National Labor Relations Board process if it gathered unionization cards from 30 percent of the potential bargaining unit. The agreement would also prevent both sides from running negative campaigns. Such agreements have been utilized in other instances to successfully settle union disputes, such as the case of Verizon employees.

However, the University says it has rejected this approach because such an agreement would also oblige the University to recognize the union without contest upon the presentation of unionization cards from GET-UP.

"Neutrality does not mean we give up our opinions, quite the contrary," he said. "If we were to recognize a union upon the presentation of cards, we have abandoned that commitment."

But GET-UP members say they have no intention of stifling debate.

"We're not trying to force something on people they don't want," GET-UP spokesman Ed Webb said. "What we're arguing for is that graduate employees should be given a choice."

PSAS member Matt Grove, a College senior and one of the co-signers of the letter, echoed Webb's sentiments.

"We're not saying the University should recognize a union," he said. "We're saying that grad students should decide for themselves."

PSAS members say they are interested in the unionization campaign on campus because of their continued interest in labor issues.

"I think one of the common misconceptions is that unions are all blue-collar workers or coal miners," Grove said. "That's not the case at all." He said the group hopes "to expand people's conception of what it means to have workers' rights and democracy in the workplace."

While GET-UP members say that their primary concern is support from graduate employees, support from within the community is also important to their cause.

"Open debate is definitely something we're in favor of, and so we're glad undergraduates are having these discussions," Webb said.

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