The majority of graduate students are still undecided about whether or not they support unionization, according to a recent survey conducted by The Daily Pennsylvanian.
63.1 percent of those graduate students surveyed said they are undecided about the issue, while 23.8 percent support unionization and 13.1 percent are against it.
Currently, Graduate Employees Together-University of Pennsylvania -- a group of graduate students seeking to unionize -- is awaiting a ruling from the National Labor Relations Board on whether union elections may be held at Penn. The case wrapped up in April, and the decision could come at any time. In the past, the NLRB has ruled in favor of unionization for students working as teaching assistants primarily within the social sciences and humanities.
The DP survey did not differentiate between those graduate students who would presumably be eligible to be part of a union and those who would not.
Out of a random sample of 1,000 graduate students -- randomly selected from the entire graduate student population -- the DP surveyed 320 on the issue of unionization. Based on the number of students polled, the margin of error is 5.6 percent.
The survey was conducted during a five day period from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m and ended Friday.
GET-UP Chairman Joe Kable said he was concerned that many of the students polled would not be those actually represented by a union because they do not teach classes or conduct research.
"Obviously it's the employees who would be voting in a union election," he said, though he still said the results were "heartening."
"Despite those limitations, there are still more people in favor of [unionization]... broader than just a small handful of people," he said.
If the NLRB does decide that graduate students have the right to hold elections -- which it has done recently at other schools including Brown, Columbia and New York universities -- GET-UP will negotiate with the University on behalf of the students included in its bargaining unit.
"Obviously we'd like to build a sort of broad-based campaign" among all the graduate students, Kable said, but "the most important survey is going to be the vote of graduate student employees."
However, University spokeswoman Lori Doyle had a different take on the survey data.
"It's encouraging that in spite of GET-UP's active campaigning, 76 percent of graduate students are still either opposed or undecided about unionization," Doyle said about the DP's findings.
"It's also important to note that Penn graduate students are independent, open minded thinkers and that huge undecided number shows that despite all of the campaigning that's gone on and claims that have been made, they are far from convinced that a one size fits all union contract will serve their individual needs as scholars," she added.
Doyle maintained that the University did not plan any more information sessions about unionization "until we have a decision from the NLRB."
Though Doyle was encouraged by the results of the survey, GET-UP spokesman David Faris argued that because the results of the survey were based on a population that included "people who are not going to be in the union" or voting, the survey did not contain enough evidence to forecast either side's victory.
"I don't think you can read too much into the results of this poll," he said.
Graduate Students Association Council President Elise Carpenter agreed, noting she found it "hard to say what these numbers mean" in terms of graduate support of unionization.
"They do make you wonder if students are [as] informed as they need to be to make a decision," she said, also noting that GSAC itself has taken a neutral stance on the issue and seeks to provide as much information as possible to graduate students.
"I hope that the 63 percent are undecided because they haven't made up their minds" and not because they are uniformed, she said.
GSAC works as an advocacy group for the entire graduate student body, as well as a liaison between the administration and graduate students for graduate issues.
While waiting for an announcement from the NLRB, GET-UP has been conducting a survey of their own in order to formulate a platform, should an election be held. The platform was just announced and is posted on the GET-UP Web site.
