Research Associates and Postdocs United at Penn met on Tuesday to discuss the launch of their bargaining campaign, the progress of other unions on campus, and an initial list of demands for the University.
The Oct. 14 presentation — which featured members of the RAPUP’s newly established bargaining committee — outlined the union’s potential path toward securing a contract with administrators. Over 30 members of Penn’s research and postdoctoral community joined the bargaining committee to offer suggestions for negotiation priorities.
The bargaining committee also announced 10 initial demands for Penn, including improved healthcare access and protections against harassment and discrimination.
In an interview with The Daily Pennsylvanian, postdoc researcher Ryan Fair, who also serves on the bargaining committee, described the meeting as an “incredibly important” step in RAPUP’s organizing efforts.
“We're hopeful and optimistic that Penn meet[s] us at the table in good faith and get[s] started to terms on the contract,” Fair said. “We're waiting to hear back from the University on dates, but we're excited for those next steps.”
Justin Roncaioli — a bargaining committee member and postdoc in the Department of Pathobiology — opened the event by asking attendees what a strong contract should look like.
“Our union now is much more tangible,” Roncaioli said in reference to the overwhelming majority vote that established RAPUP in July. “Now it's what do we actually want to win?”
During the presentation, Fair also discussed the history of the union’s relationship with Penn.
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In October 2024, RAPUP launched a card authorization campaign, which resulted in “over two thirds of people among our cohort saying I would like to have a vote about having a union.” Fair said that Penn responded by filing a "bunch of nonsense objections.”
In June 2025, the union rallied outside of a University Board of Trustees meeting, demanding that the University allow them to vote on unionization. The campaign resulted in the scheduling of an official vote, which passed by a margin of 703-38 the next month.
Estela Noguera Ortega, the only research associate on the bargaining committee, characterized the union’s initial bargaining demands — which RAPUP is currently ratifying — as the first step in the negotiation process.
“We are aiming for [negotiations] to start sometime in November, and then there will be a lot of back and forth between the parties,” Noguera Ortega said. “And finally, when a contract is agreed upon, another majority of us will ratify the contract.”
Tess Bernhard — a bargaining committee member and postdoc researcher at the Graduate School of Education — characterized the support for international scholars and other protections as “big ticket items” on the union's initial list of demands.
The bargaining committee also emphasized that the victories and demands of other on-campus unions, namely Graduate Employees Together — University of Pennsylvania, can benefit RAPUP’s progress.
On Oct. 8, GET-UP staged an informational picket to demand fair contracts and organize union members in preparation for a potential strike. On Tuesday, GET-UP also announced that it won protections against discrimination and harassment in its contract with the University.
“We think that the grad students have paved a lot of the way for a lot of the contract language that we're hoping to be able to adopt,” Fair told the DP.
He added that the group's goal is to "have everybody unified across campus, every postdoc and RA, because we believe that these are things that all of us want and all of us deserve.”
“There's not an external organization that's making this happen,” Fair said. “It's really a movement of postdocs and RAs across campus.”
