The Undergraduate Assembly passed a proposal last night encouraging University officials and Graduate Employees Together-University of Pennsylvania to enter into negotiations with the goal of preventing future strikes.
This proposal stems from a previous statement issued by the UA during GET-UP's two-day February strike. That statement condemned the tactic of striking, while pledging neutrality on the topic of unionization.
Last night's resolution -- passed with a vote of 18 in favor, four opposed and four abstaining -- "requests that GET-UP and the University administration negotiate in good faith to prevent future strikes."
"The only way to prevent strikes is to get people to actually talk," said UA member Matt Lattman, author of the proposal.
"We're kind of playing peace officer here."
Though the Engineering senior insisted that the proposal upholds the UA's neutral stance on the issue of unionization, other UA members disagreed.
"The administration has made it clear that they don't want to negotiate, and by asking them to negotiate, that's not a neutral decision," College sophomore and UA member Rachel Fersh said.
UA Chairman Jason Levy said he acknowledged that "perhaps on its surface, the proposal could presuppose a particular outcome that favors GET-UP," but he insisted that the proposal does not support either side.
"We can come up with scenarios in which both GET-UP and the University make concessions to avoid further strikes," the College senior said.
Though the proposal seems to have been introduced at a time when the GET-UP controversy may no longer be salient for many on campus, UA member and College junior Jason Levine said he saw the proposal as "proactive."
Levy agreed, emphasizing the risk of continued conflict.
"If [GET-UP was] unable to achieve the outcome they desired from the first strike, it might be rational for them to have a second strike," Levy said, adding that the second strike could be longer and more intense than the first, thus impacting undergraduates more harshly.
Levy noted that a major impetus for the resolution was the dissatisfaction expressed by the Undergraduate Support Committee for GET-UP after the UA passed their previous statement on the strike.
Members of the Undergraduate Support Committee for GET-UP worked with Lattman to outline the basic tenets of the proposal and said they were happy with the outcome.
Undergraduate Support Committee for GET-UP spokesman Hasani Sinclair said that he saw both his group and the UA as looking out for the well-being of undergraduates.
"When [this proposal] is implemented, [the undergraduates] won't be a pawn in this process," said Sinclair, a College senior.
