Six months have passed since the February elections that could decide whether graduate students employed by the University have the right to form a union.
However, no word has yet come from the National Labor Relations Board -- the federal organization in charge of union formation -- which agreed to hear the University's appeal of its November decision to grant graduate students the right to hold union elections.
Now, members of Graduate Employees Together-University of Pennsylvania are doubling their efforts to have the ballots counted, despite Penn's appeal.
The organization has contacted presidential candidates, former Vermont Governor Howard Dean and Congressman Richard Gephardt, to discuss the challenges that people in favor of the union are now facing, as well as the possible solutions to this contrast.
"Both candidates pledged their support to GET-UP and promised that they would use their power to pressure Penn's administration to drop their appeal and count our ballots," former GET-UP spokeswoman Joanna Kempner said in an e-mail statement.
Penn officials have said they have no intention of dropping the appeal -- and furthermore, the situation is not a simple one. The appeal must be evaluated by a board of five members, but currently there are four, with an appointment pending from President George W. Bush.
"I don't know if the decision can be made without the fifth," NLRB Assistant to the Regional Director John Breese said.
Furthermore, "there are several other cases pending before the board," Breese said. "It is very hard to predict when [the decision] will happen."
While there is no foreseeable end to these developments, the story of the unionization issue is one that covers an even longer span.
On Nov. 21, the NLRB granted graduate students employed by Penn the right to hold union elections, thus potentially giving them the chance to receive the same benefits that full-fledged employees have -- health care, higher stipends and better working conditions -- in recognition for the work graduate students say they perform as employees.
"We believe that the graduate education environments are directly linked to the educational experience," GET-UP Co-Chairwoman Amy Heneveld said. "There has been a legal ruling that states that we are employees.... We are paying taxes as employees."
Penn was the fifth university in the country whose graduate students were granted the possibility to unionize, after New York, Brown, Columbia and Tufts universities. However, on Dec. 12, the University filed an appeal with the NLRB asking the organization to reconsider its decision.
"Our position is that graduate students are primarily, fundamentally and essentially students," Deputy Provost Peter Conn said. "To superimpose an adversarial collective bargaining model on well-established, successful collegial practices is destructive."
As a result of the University's request, the NLRB decided to direct elections but have the ballots impounded until after the appeal is decided one way or the other.
The elections took place on Feb. 26 and 27 in Houston Hall under the surveillance of NLRB agents.
Two groups of students were allowed to cast their preference. First were those on the Excelsior List -- graduate students who met eligibility criteria and were NLRB-approved voters. Of the approximately 10,000 graduate students at Penn, only 997 met the NLRB requirements based on the only legal precedent, the NYU case.
The second group consisted of students who cast special challenge ballots, feeling they had a strong reason to vote in these elections. Though all votes could be challenged if the University's appeal is granted, challenge votes would be discarded if the total number of challenge ballots cast was greater than the margin of victory.
According to an exit poll conducted by The Daily Pennsylvanian outside the voting area, 60.4 percent of the eligible voters surveyed supported a union, 35 percent opposed a union and 4.6 percent did not reveal their opinion.
As for the challenge ballots, 63.8 percent of those surveyed voted in opposition of a union, 29.9 percent supported a union and 6.2 percent did not reveal their opinion.
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.
