Graduate Employees Together — University of Pennsylvania staged an informational picket on Wednesday to demand fair contracts and organize union members in preparation for a potential strike.
The Oct. 8 demonstration attracted over 500 workers in support of the union’s ongoing contract negotiations with Penn’s administration. At the picket, GET-UP announced that its members have begun pledging to authorize a strike in the event Penn continues to reject the union’s proposed contract.
The attendees walked between 34th and 36th streets while carrying signs expressing their demands, including protections for international students and measures against workplace discrimination and harassment. Members of American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations — the largest federation of unions in the United States — and Pennsylvania state Sen. Nikil Saval (D-Philadelphia) also attended the rally.
GET-UP represents over 3,700 domestic and international graduate workers on campus. The group — which was established in May 2024 with a 95% majority vote — is represented by the United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, a national union that represents various sectors including higher education.
The picket marks almost one year since GET-UP’s contract negotiations with Penn began.
“Our first negotiation session was Oct. 17, 2024,” GET-UP organizer and Ph.D. student Sam Schirvar said in an interview with The Daily Pennsylvanian. “Since then, we’ve had 30 bargaining sessions [and] 180 hours of physically sitting across the table from administration and their lawyers.”
Despite the union’s efforts to provide “really well-thought-out proposals,” the University has responded with “needless delays,” according to Schirvar.
According to a University spokesperson, Penn’s administrators are committed to “continue working diligently” with GET-UP “while maintaining the continuity of our thriving academic environment for all of our students.”
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“Penn has a long track record of productive relationships with our graduate students, as well as the various unionized working groups on our campus,” the spokesperson wrote. “We continue to bargain in good faith with GET-UP-UAW throughout the negotiation period.”
Guruprerana Shabadi, a second-year computer and information science Ph.D student and a member of GET-UP’s bargaining committee, told the DP that the objective of the picket was “to gather hundreds of graduate workers” to demonstrate “how much it matters to us.”
The demonstration is also one of GET-UP’s “escalation tactics” that could potentially result in a strike, according to Georgia McClain, a second-year molecular biology Ph.D. student.
Fifth-year cellular and molecular biology Ph.D. student Emily Aunins, who is on the GET-UP bargaining committee, also discussed the process of pledging to strike, adding that “picketing is the first step in the escalation towards potentially taking that kind of action.”
In his opening speech at the picket, Peter Bailer — a fifth-year biochemistry and molecular biophysics Ph.D. student and GET-UP bargaining committee member — emphasized that the union has taken steps to prepare for a strike.
“Workers like us are the engine that generate billions of dollars in revenues for this University,” he said. “We are willing to shut that engine off and stop our work if they do not agree to a fair contract.”
Bailer told the DP that while a strike is “not super uncommon for our field,” the University can avoid that outcome by “com[ing] to the bargaining table.”
“If they want to prevent a strike, it’s in their court,” Bailer said. “All of these articles — economics, international worker support, union security — [are] in their hands, and we’re just waiting for them to come to the table and bring it in good faith.”
By signing the pledge, union members agreed to vote in favor of a strike if the motion were put forward. Picket attendees were encouraged to sign pledges either at GET-UP’s information desk during the picket or online.
According to many union leaders, the picket — and, by extension, a potential strike — could be the only chance GET-UP has to apply pressure on the University in regard to worker protections and the safety of international students.
Shabadi, an international student from India, told the DP that “There’s a lot that Penn can do to protect our rights,” namely by reimbursing the costs associated with acquiring a United States visa, which “can be an incredible burden on students coming from any less privileged background.”
Several of Penn’s peer institutions, such as Cornell University and Johns Hopkins University, already cover these costs.
Shabadi also highlighted that a “[valid] visa depends on having a guaranteed source of funding, and if we lose our funding that threatens our visa status.”
The union members similarly expressed frustration about the rising cost of living in Philadelphia, which Penn stipends do not cover completely.
“[The] cost of living in Philadelphia has increased really dramatically,” Schirvar told the DP. “The stipends that we get are simply not keeping up with the rising cost of inflation.”
Aunins also emphasized that “the minimum stipend at Penn is $39,000,” while “at every other Ivy League university, it is $48,000 or more.”
“Penn is absolutely falling behind all of its peer institutions,” Aunins said.
GET-UP also demanded improved health insurance for graduate employees during the picket.
Katelyn Friedline — a second-year communication and history and sociology of Science Ph.D. student and GET-UP bargaining committee member — explained in an interview with the DP that she "self-funds" her wheelchair because the Penn Student Insurance Plan “doesn’t view being able to leave the house to go to work as a medical necessity.”
While tentative agreements have been reached for many noneconomic articles, Penn has yet to respond to any of GET-UP’s proposals pertaining to compensation and benefits — which were sent to administrators in June.
