Just weeks after ratifying a historic contract with the University, Penn’s graduate worker union has been officially chartered by the United Auto Workers.
Graduate Employees Together — University of Pennsylvania will now also be recognized as UAW Local 5124. Although GET-UP has been affiliated with the UAW since its inception, this designation establishes it as a formal chapter of the union at large.
GET-UP will now be a local chapter within a larger national labor organization, and the UAW will be able to represent GET-UP union members.
A request for comment was left with a University spokesperson.
According to a March 12 GET-UP social media post, the union’s local number — 5124 — is a reference to May 1, 2024, the day graduate workers at Penn overwhelmingly voted to unionize.
“I think many of us have been thinking about this moment for months if not years, and I feel incredibly grateful to be learning and working alongside grad workers who have fought tirelessly to become UAW Local 5124,” third-year Ph.D. candidate and bargaining committee member, Clara Abbott, wrote to The Daily Pennsylvanian. “Our years of bargaining and organizing were just the beginning of this ongoing fight for the compensation and protections workers deserve.”
Fifth-year Ph.D. candidate and bargaining committee member, Peter Bailer, explained in a statement to the DP that he was “honored to have played a role in this monumental achievement.”
He added that the chartering “was only possible through supermajority support and willingness to fight for the fair pay and benefits graduate workers deserve.”
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Nearly 25 years after graduate workers began organizing at Penn, GET-UP is making history
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The union encouraged graduate workers to become dues-paying members of UAW Local 5124 “to stand up against multi-billion dollar employers such as Penn.”
“As a graduate worker, union membership allows my colleagues and I to have a strong voice on campus,” Stuart Weitzman School of Design graduate student and research assistant Margaret Balich wrote in a GET-UP Instagram post. She added that the membership “boosts our collective morale and strengthens our bargaining power in future contract negotiations.”
The union — which represents over 3,700 graduate workers — reached a tentative agreement with Penn on Feb. 16, narrowly averting a strike that would have had widespread impacts on teaching and research across campus. Later that month, GET-UP announced 77% of graduate workers participated in the ratification vote, with an overwhelming 99% voted in favor of ratifying the contract.
Under the union’s new contract, Penn’s graduate workers will now be afforded a minimum annual stipend of $49,000, effective April 1. The pay increase — a 21% jump from the previous minimum of $40,608 — now more closely resembles stipend levels offered by peer institutions.
Graduate workers will also receive enhanced child care and medical benefits, insurance benefits, and support for international workers, along with several provisions Penn had not previously guaranteed — including paid holidays, paid leave, disability accommodations, and tuition remission.
Bailer wrote to the DP that the union’s contract with Penn “raises the bar for the higher education labor movements across the country.” He added that the contract makes “real, positive change” for graduate workers after “thousands of one-on-one conversations, hundreds of hours bargaining, and collective actions, each with more participation than the last.”
In recent years, graduate worker unions at several peer institutions have secured similar agreements as unionization efforts have expanded across universities in the United States.
“I am energized and ready to work alongside my colleagues to make sure this contract translates to meaningful changes in the lives of grad workers here at Penn,” Abbott wrote.
RELATED:
Nearly 25 years after graduate workers began organizing at Penn, GET-UP is making history
The path leading up to GET-UP’s tentative agreement with Penn
Senior reporter Ananya Karthik covers central administration and can be reached at karthik@thedp.com. At Penn, she studies communication and economics. Follow her on X @ananyaakarthik.
