Graduate Employees Together-University of Pennsylvania will vote today in a members-only meeting to finalize a strike set to occur this Thursday and Friday. Two-thirds of these members must vote in favor of the plan, and GET-UP leaders said that they are confident that the strike will be approved.
The membership meeting is scheduled to begin tonight at 6 p.m.
GET-UP leaders said that since January, they have been contacting graduate students individually in efforts to win their support of a strike. Organizers have been calling students and meeting teaching assistants after classes to persuade them to take part in the strike.
Members of GET-UP have said that a level of agreement has largely been reached within the group.
Huarong Tang, a fourth-year international Ph.D. candidate in the Wharton School, said that all GET-UP members that he knows have been in favor of the effort, and he expects the strike to take place as planned.
"The GET-UP members that I've encountered are quite supportive," Tang said. "Generally, people who aren't supportive of our actions aren't members."
Deirdre Martinez, a GET-UP member who is studying for her Ph.D. in Education, said that she was approached by organizers a couple of weeks ago about the prospect of striking.
Martinez, a research assistant and mother of two, said that she plans to vote in favor of a strike tonight and would plan to take part in the walk-out events on Thursday and Friday.
Martinez hopes the action will sway the University's current stance.
"Obviously, when people go on strike they hope to see something changed," Martinez said. "And in our case, we would like to see the University decide to let the votes be counted and to move forward in a democratic fashion."
Organizers said that they were met with initial support from roughly 60 percent of members contacted. Since then, the level has risen, according to organizers.
GET-UP has been publicizing its cause through flyers located around campus, and approximately 100 members were present at Friday's meeting of the University Board of Trustees. GET-UP Chairman David Faris stood and encouraged trustees to advocate GET-UP's desire to unionize.
Following the meeting, GET-UP protesters -- along with about 20 community supporters and undergraduates -- marched in the procession held to welcome Amy Gutmann as the new Penn president, chanting and holding posters reading, "Count the votes."
The strike is planned to coincide with the anniversary of the unionization election held last February by the National Labor Relations Board. The votes remain uncounted due to the University's appeal arguing that graduate students are not employees and therefore have no right to unionize. The appeal is still pending.
Graduate students in favor of the strike have been left frustrated by the situation.
"We have no other options," Tang said, "and we've tried many different things to ask the administration to sit down and talk with us, but now no other methods have worked."
Tang is a teaching assistant for an undergraduate Finance course and said that if members vote in favor of the strike, he plans to participate.
Graduate students in favor of a union claim that they are underpaid and undertrained for their teaching duties.
The University counters that students receive an Ivy League education, plus a stipend ranging between $15,000 and $20,000, and are offered a three-week training program.
