Staff Editorial: Lessons to be learned

The debate over graduate student unionization at Penn is nothing compared to the situation in New Haven this week. Yesterday, two local unions and a host of graduate students began their weeklong strike at Yale University. The unions -- made up mostly of maintenance and clerical workers -- are hitting the picket lines in search of pay raises. And members of Yale's Graduate Employees and Students Organization are taking to the streets in order to form their own union. Meanwhile, Yale administrators are acting as if this strike is business as usual, sending e-mails to undergraduates encouraging them to ignore the picket lines and go to class as scheduled. The saddest part of this whole situation is that at Yale, this is business as usual. The latest strike over contract negotiations is the eighth in the last 35 years. It seems like every time the two sides sit down to bargain, they make no progress until union members break out the posterboard. Fortunately, Penn has somehow managed to avoid such ugly situations with the unions that exist on campus. The University and the local unions should be commended for the cordial process that has accompanied contract negotiations in the past. However, there are lessons to be learned from the picket lines. Just ask the Yale undergraduates, many of whom can't use the dining halls this week and are watching their recitation leaders shirk responsibilities. Any strike on this campus would be devastating for public relations and would undoubtedly have ramifications for all community members. Although some have questioned the tactics used on both sides of Penn's unionization debate, it is clear that the graduate student union elections were held in a respectable manner. We implore both sides to keep it that way. Graduate students at Penn should not strike under any circumstances, regardless of the outcome of the election. And Penn officials must do everything they can to keep lines of communication open with all local unions in order to avoid the problems that Yale administrators are currently facing. No contract negotiation at Penn has gotten ugly to date, and for the sake of the entire community, it's important that this streak remains intact.

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