Penn’s graduate student union could strike next month. Here’s what we know

In less than a month, Penn’s graduate student union could strike, sending workers to picket lines across campus if a contract with the University is not reached.

The Feb. 17 strike deadline, announced in January by representatives of Graduate Employees Together — University of Pennsylvania, is the latest and most drastic effort taken by the union since contract negotiations began in April 2023. In interviews with The Daily Pennsylvanian, graduate workers and administrators described how a strike would change campus life and the relationships between students and teaching assistants.

According to GET-UP’s website, a strike would mean that graduate workers holding teaching and research positions would suspend their work responsibilities — including grading, leading recitations, holding office hours, and conducting certain research activities.

Workers with research appointments would also refrain from starting new experiments and attending lab meetings for the duration of the strike. 

“I really don’t want to go on strike,” GET-UP member and second-year Ph.D. student Zamora Perez said. “If we do go on strike, it’s the students who are actually going to be missing that one-on-one care, missing that feedback, missing their grades. These are all fundamental things to running this institution that I cannot prepare for if we go on strike.”

Perez, who serves as a teaching assistant at the Annenberg School for Communication, also reiterated the lack of “real communication” she has received from administrators about what a strike would look like on campus.

The Provost’s Office previously sent an email sent to union members on Nov. 24, 2025 — three days after GET-UP overwhelming voted to authorize the strike. In the message obtained by the DP, Penn wrote that the authorization “does not necessarily mean that the union will call a strike or go on strike,” but simply gives union leadership the authority to do so. 

Penn also wrote at the time that members who do not work during the strike “will not be paid.” The email detailed a work attestation process that would require stipend-paid workers to affirm that they performed instructional or research work in order to receive full payment.

According to Perez, graduate students have not received detailed guidance from the University since the November 2025 email. 

“The email was so questionably worded that it almost seemed like you had to declare your intent to work or intent to strike, even before you went on strike,” third-year Ph.D. student and Annenberg teaching assistant Vishwanath Emani Venkata said.

A member of the union, Venkata reiterated that a strike is GET-UP’s “last resort” but could be necessary given the “painstakingly slow” negotiations.

“We’re here because we love our research, and we’re here because we love what we’re teaching, and we love teaching it to you,” he said.

In a statement, a University spokesperson wrote that administrators believe a “fair contract for the Union and Penn can be achieved without a work stoppage.”

“Efforts are underway to ensure teaching and research continuity, and the expectation is that classes and other academic activities will continue in the event of a strike,” the spokesperson added.

History and sociology of science Ph.D. candidate Sam Schirvar — who also serves as an organizer for GET-UP — previously told the DP that the strike would cause a “serious disruption” for workers and students.

“That’s not something that we look forward to doing, and it’s really unfortunate that the Penn administration has put us in this position,” Schirvar added at the time.

Administrators across the University similarly pointed to a potential strike’s repercussions for undergraduate students.

College of Arts and Sciences Director of Operations and Communications Anne Albert wrote to the DP that the school plans to “support undergraduate students through any disruptions and promote their continued learning and course progress.”

School of Engineering and Applied Sciences Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education Robert Ghrist also described “taking care” of his undergraduate students as his “highest priority.” He wrote that there is “no circumstance” under which he would “permit their education to be diminished,” adding that that students “work so very hard” and that he would “labor alongside them.”

On Oct. 8, 2025, GET-UP held an informational picket on campus to build support for its bargaining efforts, drawing hundreds of graduate workers and community members. Union leaders described the demonstration as an “escalation tactic” amid ongoing contract negotiations.

The union also hosted a press conference on Nov. 3, 2025 alongside local elected officials to formally announce the strike authorization vote.

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