For Graduate Workers
Background
On May 1-2, 2024, an election was held to determine whether the United Auto Workers (UAW) would represent a unit of Penn graduate and professional students. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) counted the ballots on Friday, May 3, 2024, and announced that a majority of the students who participated in the election voted in favor of union representation. The NLRB certified these election results on May 13, 2024. See below to learn about the composition of the bargaining unit.
Bargaining
Since Fall 2024, The University has been bargaining in good faith with GETUP-UAW, with the goal of reaching a tentative agreement on all proposals with the union and subsequent ratification by the union’s membership. Please see Bargaining Updates for more details on each session and the many tentative agreements already reached.
Potential Strike/Work Stoppage
We have prepared Strike/Work Stoppage FAQs to answer the questions graduate students in the bargaining unit may have regarding a strike/work stoppage.
Composition of the Bargaining Unit
The bargaining unit includes all graduate and professional students who provide research or instructional services for the University in Philadelphia, comprised of those who serve as Teaching Assistants, Teaching Fellows, Research Assistants, Research Fellows, Pre-Doctoral Trainees, and Student Workers.
Excluded from the unit are the following:
- Students pursuing professional degrees in the Veterinary School, the Dental School, and the Medical School with the exception of professional students in those programs who are pursuing a joint degree and who qualify for inclusion by virtue of their research or instructional service for the University in conjunction with their other graduate or professional program;
- Educational Fellowship Recipients*;
- Guards;
- Supervisors; and
- All other employees.
*There is an unresolved question as to whether Educational Fellowship Recipients in lab rotations in the first year of the Biology PhD Program and the first and second years of the Biomedical Graduate Studies PhD Program are included in, or excluded from, the bargaining unit. All other Educational Fellowship Recipients are excluded.