Penn’s graduate student union announced plans on Tuesday to launch an indefinite strike — suspending all teaching and research duties — if a contract agreement is not reached with the University by Feb. 17.
In a Tuesday Instagram post , representatives from Graduate Employees Together — University of Pennsylvania wrote that the union will strike unless Penn’s contract proposals “significantly improve” within the coming weeks. If the union were to strike, more than 3,700 graduate student workers would cease work responsibilities — including grading assignments and hosting recitations, office hours, and review sessions — to join picket lines across campus.
A request for comment was left with a University spokesperson.
In an interview with The Daily Pennsylvanian, Sam Schirvar, an eighth-year Ph.D. student and GET-UP bargaining committee member, emphasized the “serious disruption” a strike would have on classes that rely on graduate students.
“They would be stopping lecturing, stopping office hours, stopping holding sections, stopping emailing students, and stopping grading exams,” Schirvar said. “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.”
According to GET-UP’s website, graduate workers with research appointments will also be expected to suspend “new experiments” and refrain from attending lab meetings for the duration of the strike — which would last until Penn agrees to a contract or workers “collectively decide to cease striking.”
“A strike is not inevitable,” GET-UP wrote in the Instagram post. “Penn admin has forced grad workers to make a difficult decision: we can accept their insulting offers or we can go on strike to win the contract that we deserve.”
Schirvar stated that the strike deadline is intended to signal urgency to administrators, adding that “there is a clock ticking.” He highlighted that the union’s ideal contract includes provisions on improved pay, benefits, and support for international workers.
“That allows us to live comfortably in Philly, a city with rising costs of living, and thus allows us to focus on our research and teaching without having to worry about paying rent and making ends meet,” he said.
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The strike deadline announcement follows more than a year of contract negotiations with University administrators. On Oct. 8, GET-UP staged an informational picket in support of the union’s bargaining efforts. Days later, the union reached a tentative agreement on an article protecting students from harassment and discrimination.
On Nov. 21, the union’s members overwhelmingly voted to authorize a strike. Before the results of the vote, Penn’s Office of the Provost issued guidance that workers can “choose to continue working” even if they voted to strike and that striking workers would not be paid by the University.
At the time, the Office of the Provost also stated that all students are “expected to attend classes even if it requires crossing picket lines,” and students who do not wish to cross picket lines are encouraged to “discuss the implications of this decision in advance with individual faculty.”
Senior reporter Ananya Karthik contributed reporting.
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Staff reporter Daniya Siddiqui covers campus advocacy and can be reached at daniyas@sas.upenn.edu. At Penn, she studies political science.
