Grad union election ends tonight

Blending neatly into the classically Ivy League atmosphere of Houston Hall, black-suited agents from the National Labor Relations Board supervised the first day of graduate-employee union elections yesterday. Hundreds voted -- and more will vote today -- to decide whether or not Graduate Employees Together-University of Pennsylvania will represent a select, NLRB-determined bargaining unit in contract negotiations and collective bargaining with the University. But while the day went smoothly overall, some students left the polling station in the Benjamin Franklin Room frustrated that they were not allowed to cast a vote. "I'm disappointed," Wharton Ph.D. student Radhakrishna Kamath said. "I don't have a voice." Though not currently a teaching assistant as a first-year doctoral candidate in finance, Kamath will be obliged to work as a TA each year he is enrolled in the program, starting next semester. "I'm surprised, because unionization will affect me," he concluded, adding that he hoped the challenge ballot he cast will be counted. A challenge ballot can be cast by someone not currently in the bargaining unit who would be affected by unionization in the future. This determination is made by the NLRB election supervisors. Some students wishing to cast challenge ballots were not allowed to do so. "They said my connection to the University was too tenuous," Monique Timberlake, a fifth-year Ph.D. student in anthropology, said about the NLRB agents' decision not to allow her to cast a challenge ballot. "They said the way things are written now... [the challenge ballot] probably wouldn't count anyway." Neither the NLRB board agents nor their supervisor, Field Examiner Harold Maier, would comment on the election, but NLRB Assistant Regional Director John Breese explained the board's reason for not accepting some individuals' challenge ballots. "If you allowed everyone who was or will be affected [to cast ballots], you could let the entire United States vote," he said, explaining that the election will be decided, as per NLRB policy, "based on people who are currently employed." According to Breese, challenge ballots will only be counted if the margin of victory is less than the total number of challenge ballots cast. Even then, each challenge must be debated and approved by both the University and GET-UP before it can be counted. "I was allowed [to cast a challenge ballot], but when I explained my University affiliation, they just put down 'fellowship'," Fels Institute of Government graduate student Jennifer Warren said, noting that she was worried that the NLRB had not recognized that "there's a difference between a fellowship that is non-service and a fellowship that is service. "I work as the managing editor of a journal, and that pays for my stipend," she said. "I probably do more work than some TAs do -- I used to be a TA, and I know." Concerned that a significant issue in her graduate career will "be decided by a few select people" chosen along lines she said were "arbitrary," Warren voiced her perspective on GET-UP claims that Penn administrators' encouragement of challenge ballots made the process seem less legitimate. GET-UP spokesperson Joanna Kempner encouraged graduate students on Tuesday to "vote only if you are in the unit," noting that administrators were "encouraging a lot of people who clearly aren't eligible," which "can really make the election seem less legitimate." "It almost seems like they're afraid," Warren said. "It's kind of fishy when students don't want other students to vote." GET-UP co-chairwoman Elizabeth Williamson admitted that "the Excelsior list [of those allowed to vote by the NLRB] is goofy," but urged graduate students to "trust the people who are eligible to vote to be representative" of their non-voting colleagues. "We would love to be able to have people rotating in and out of the unit be able to cast votes," Williamson said, noting that it is "partly the nature of unions" to allow a representative few to make decisions. But according to Deputy Provost Peter Conn, the situation "indicates... to me at least how mischievous this undefined, divisive and arbitrary unit is." Voting will resume today at 10 a.m. in the Benjamin Franklin Room in Houston Hall. Today is the final day to cast ballots, with the polls closing at 7 p.m.

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