Union clashes have history at U.

Some things don't change. Anti-war protesters are taking to the streets. Global recessions have bled nations of jobs.

And, at Penn, a fledgling union and the University have fought the same battles the campus saw 40 years ago.

Graduate Employees Together-University of Pennsylvania held an organizing drive on campus, culminating in National Labor Relations Board-supervised union elections at the end of last month. The results of February's election will be impounded by the NLRB until the University, which conducted a vigorous anti-union campaign, either drops its appeal to the board's national office or the board rules against it.

There are around 1,100 union employees working on campus represented by five unions, according to University spokeswoman Lori Doyle.

Though outsourcing practiced over the past few years has effectively blocked direct contact between Penn's leadership and the unions -- which bargain instead with management companies like Aramark -- the University does bargain directly with a number of unions, including Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Local 274, representing people supplying food and beverage service in the Steinberg Conference Center and the Association of Federal State and County Employees, which bargains for workers in Penn's library system.

Shefali Chandra, a GET-UP member and History doctoral candidate completing her last year at Penn, sees parallels between the organizing committee's drive for recognition and earlier union movements that ultimately became the established campus unions of today.

"The strategies are very similar to what we faced at GET-UP," Chandra said, noting similarities between GET-UP and Local 590, which is comprised of library workers, in particular.

Members of Local 590 "said there was a lot of anti-union activity -- it was very difficult to form a union," Chandra explained. "The problem has always been getting recognized."

Indeed, negotiating its first contract in 1969, Local 590 went unrecognized for years, weathering ideological arguments and threats that conditions could worsen if the union was formed.

"They made the argument that unionization was inappropriate for library workers," Local 590 Steward John Hogan said.

Hogan, who works in the Biddle Law Library, added that Penn does bargain in good faith once a union becomes established, but that Penn has never made "getting over that first hurdle" especially easy.

Chandra also suggested that the current unionization drive, against the backdrop of an increasingly tense political climate, mirrors the attitudes on campus in the Vietnam years.

"The intellectual climate is also so similar," she said, noting that anti-war and anti-globalization rallies echo the occupation of administrative buildings and opposition to U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia in the '60s and '70s.

"The political axis is generally coming a little to the left," Chandra said. "People have a larger political vision. The original unions formed coalitions with other left-wing political groups," just as GET-UP has.

Indeed, Local 590, negotiating at the height of the Vietnam War, included a provision in its first contract that "any employee who is imprisoned for refusal to accept induction into the armed forces of the United States shall be granted a leave of absence for the duration of that imprisonment."

Though only 5 percent of Penn's employees are unionized compared to the national average of 13.5 percent and the state of Pennsylvania's whopping 20 percent, those unions that have gained collective bargaining rights bargain with Penn with few incidents.

"The last strike at Penn was way back in 1988," Doyle said, noting that Penn is "widely recognized as a very good employer in Philadelphia" and settles many contracts ahead of schedule.

Still, as GET-UP and a union drive at HUP continue to go unrecognized, many feel Penn's commitment to its workers has been too easily overshadowed by its business sense.

According to President and Business Manager of Local 274 R. Thurston Hyman, "Every time someone wants to lower the bottom line, it's on the backs of the employees."

Penn votes: The union debate

With the graduate student union elections just one week away, Penn's campus is gearing up to vote -- and sorting through the numerous facets of the complex decision.

So before the elections take place on Feb. 26 and 27, The Daily Pennsylvanian will examine some of the various issues surrounding the unionization debate, such as healthcare and tax status.

As you read, please share your ideas regarding graduate student unionization below.

h3 align="center">Penn votes: The union debate

ith the graduate student union elections just one week away, Penn's campus is gearing up to vote -- and sorting through the numerous facets of the complex decision.

So before the elections take place on Feb. 26 and 27, The Daily Pennsylvanian will examine some of the various issues surrounding the unionization debate, such as healthcare and tax status.

As you read, please share your ideas regarding graduate student unionization below.

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