GET-UP for employees only
To the Editor:
I am writing to correct some misconceptions that might arise from yesterday's article about graduate support for Graduate Employees Together-University of Pennsylvania ("Strike not supported by all grad students," The Daily Pennsylvanian, 02/24/04). The important distinction that was missed in this article is the distinction between students and employees. It has never been GET-UP's claim to represent graduate students, only graduate employees (i.e., graduate students who teach or do research). Graduate students who do not work would not fall under the purview of GET-UP in any way, shape or form; they would not pay dues, and GET-UP would have no say in their stipends or anything else pertaining to their education. In short, they would not be affected and could continue to look to the Graduate Student Associations Council and Graduate and Professional Student Assembly to articulate their concerns.
This situation applies to the Wharton Ph.D. student who questioned how the election could be fair if not all Ph.D. students got to vote: Only those teaching or doing research could vote, as they were the only ones whom the decision had any effect on. The decision as to who was included in the bargaining unit -- and thus who could vote -- was made by the regional director of the National Labor Relations Board when authorizing the vote, and was based very closely on legal precedent in numerous previous cases, and involved, again, not all graduate students, but those graduate students performing teaching and research duties for the University -- to wit, employees.
Dillon Brown
SAS '07 The writer is the media spokesman for GET-UP.
An inflammatory memo
To the Editor:
On Feb. 23, the Provost's Office sent an inflammatory memo to staff and faculty at Penn entitled "Reporting to Work During Potential Graduate Student Strike." Noting that Penn's graduate students planned a walk-out for Feb. 26 and 27, the memo states: "In the event that a staff member is prevented from entering his/her work area, he/she should go to the nearest phone and call Public Safety at 215-573-3333 or 511 (from a campus phone). Staff members who do not report to work because of strike-related conditions may not be paid for the time absent and may be subject to disciplinary action." Moreover, "staff members who call out sick during the days of the strike may be required to present a statement from their health care provider certifying the medical necessity of their absence upon their return to work."
This is an inflammatory statement as the graduate students' organization, GET-UP, at no time has threatened that it will prevent staff members from going to work. As a matter of fact, the GET-UP Web site encourages staff members to go to work and to participate in the noontime and 4:30 p.m. GET-UP picket lines on the days of the walk-out.
The Provost's Office should retract its inflammatory statement. It is also shameful to threaten staff members with disciplinary action for exercising their right to not cross a picket line. Perhaps the staff at the University of Pennsylvania should form our own union to ensure that we are not the victims of this kind of threat.
Thank you for standing up for your rights, graduate students! You are doing a great job!
Susan Staggs
Editorial/Production Assistant
University of Pennsylvania Press
