GET-UP petition confuses some

The partisan. The cautious. The confused. Members of the bargaining unit that signed a pro-unionization petition circulated by Graduate Employees Together-University of Pennsylvania before last week's union election had motives as diverse as Penn's graduate student community itself. While some students say they fully back the petition they signed, others say they had no idea what they were adding their names to. The petition, specifically supporting GET-UP and the American Federation of Teachers of the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations, was signed by just over 500 people, according to copies printed around campus and a full-page advertisement that ran the first day of the elections in The Daily Pennsylvanian. Representing a majority of the 997 National Labor Relations Board-approved voters, GET-UP is confident that the petition proves that the organizing committee won the right to unionize at the polls. "The overwhelming majority of petition signers came out to vote and told us that they voted yes," GET-UP spokesperson Joanna Kempner said. "It stands as proof to the community at large that GET-UP won this election with a solid majority." GET-UP organizers, many of whom signed the petition, said they agreed. "We've clearly shown a majority of the bargaining unit has voted yes for unionization," said Robert Fairbanks, a fourth-year doctoral candidate in the School of Social Work. "Any administration that has democracy in mind would be invested in... counting the votes and... respecting our statutory rights toward collective bargaining." A GET-UP member and organizer, the social welfare student found it "really surprising" that some had found the petition, and GET-UP's organizing tactics in general, confusing or intrusive. "This is typical, conventional get-out-the-vote behavior," he said. However, some petition signatories admitted to being swayed to GET-UP's side by the petition drive. "If I didn't sign that, probably I wouldn't have voted," said Lei Xiao, a first-year Wharton School doctoral candidate, noting that "yes or no is not much difference for me." Others also appreciated GET-UP's informational campaign. "I'm from another country, and when I came here, I didn't really know how things should be," one second-year School of Arts and Sciences doctoral student said. "I think what they said has given me more information about [how things] should be," she concluded. Others, however, admitted to being less than in the know. "Bargaining unit, what do you mean?" Engineering doctoral student and petition signatory Yu Xiang asked about the NLRB mandated unit that delineated voting rights in the election. "I think I am in that union," he said. Xiang, listed as a petition signatory, said that he was unaware that his name was on the petition. "Maybe sometime I signed something," he said, "but I'm not very sure." Nevertheless, many graduate students were very sure indeed. "I'm proud to have my name on it," English Ph.D. student Matt Ruben said. "I've found the campaign informative and useful," he added. "I've seen a lot of union campaigns, and I thought this was a very well-behaved one." Other signatories, however, had misgivings. A first-year graduate student in the Graduate School of Education said that she thinks she "signed it before I fully understood everything." "It was pretty intense," she said. "They were very available to put a positive slant on it. I think that there was a part of me that [thought], 'Are these people going to leave me alone if I don't sign it?'" "They had people staked out all over campus, and if they didn't see you wearing a [GET-UP] sticker, they would jump down your throat, they had people calling, seeing when you were going to vote," she continued, noting that despite her positive experience with unions in the past and her initially positive impression of GET-UP, "I'm not sure that I still feel that way."

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.