Penn’s Problematic History of Union-busting

by Anonymous

The University of Pennsylvania is a powerful institution: it is worth over $20 billion and is the largest employer in the city of Philadelphia. As Penn continues to grow, it remains essential for the University to manage its role as a major stakeholder in the city responsibly. Workers across the country have recently pushed for labor reform, and more Americans approve of labor unions now than any other time in the last 50 years, according to a recent poll by Gallup. Between October 2021 and March 2022, union election petitions filed at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) increased by 57% compared to previous years. 

Simultaneously, however, Penn has been faced with allegations of union-busting tactics and remained silent in the face of labor organizing in Philadelphia. Corporations and institutions implement common union-busting strategies to keep workers divided, demoralized, and controlled. 

On campus, Penn students have the opportunity to create meaningful relationships with the workers they interact with on a day-to-day basis. 2020 Wharton graduate Michelle Lyu assisted in the reemergence of one of Penn’s major student-led labor organizing groups, Students Labor Action Project (SLAP). She said that it can be easy for students to “conveniently assume” that the workers in dining halls, custodial staff, and others are safe, happy, and secure in their employment. Lyu said, however, that it remains essential for incoming and current students to be honest with themselves and actively confront their relationship to the struggle of these workers.

Below, our goal is to briefly detail some recent examples of labor struggles on Penn’s campus and then more broadly in Philadelphia before explaining how students can take advantage of their position and create meaningful change.

On campus

Penn Museum

Workers at The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology claimed that they were subject to unsafe working conditions, faced problems with upper-level administration and management, and were paid unfair wages. Penn Museum itself had been subject to national controversy because of its possession of the Morton Collection and MOVE bombing victim remains. 

In May 2021, they officially filed for a union, hoping to join the Museum and Cultural Workers Local 397. The University retaliated. Museum staff said that they were inundated with emails containing false and misleading information about unionization. University administration actively encouraged union-eligible employees to vote “no,” and museum management held captive-audience meetings to spread anti-union talking points. Chris Woods, Penn Museum’s director, disseminated a video where he implored workers to vote against unionization. 

In response to these allegations, Penn Museum and University administrators emailed a statement to the DP, writing, “We fully support our employees’ right to make a free and informed decision, and we believe they are entitled to receive honest, factual information about the voting process and collective bargaining.”

Despite Penn’s best efforts, Penn Museum workers triumphed and won their union vote in August of 2021. 

Computer Science TAs

For over five years, the DP has reported on the lack of resources available to Department of Computer and Information Sciences (CIS) staff. Student Teaching Assistants (TAs) for CIS 1200 (previously CIS-120) have said that there is not enough space for students. Students have said that the limited resources allocated to the CIS department have forced them to wait hours before receiving homework help during office hours. More recently, the situation for TAs only worsened throughout the pandemic as many were forced to hold in-person office hours with no hazard pay.

CIS TAs have faced consistent pushback from administrators and other staff during repeated attempts at unionization, according to Nico Melton, who organized a unionization attempt for CIS120 TAs in 2020. He said that throughout the process, “the administration and the higher-ups were constantly trying to pit us against each other.” Professors and head TAs alike constantly told them they were fighting a losing battle as there was no support for a union, and that a unionized TA body would only harm students and professors. 

Nico explained that both statements were unfounded. Nico and fellow organizers found that over half of CIS TAs supported the movement, and argued that a unionized TA body would not negatively affect anyone. As TAs are usually full-time students as well, not paying them fair wages or providing benefits only worsens the pressure cooker academic environment that infamously plagues Penn.

Off-campus

While there are key factors that make organizing on campus unique, it can be useful to look more broadly at unionization efforts across the city to understand the scope of these labor issues.

Across the nation, over 200 Starbucks have put forward unionizing efforts with Starbucks Workers United, and they’re in various stages of finalizing a contract. Four Starbucks in Philadelphia recently voted to unionize last May, according to Axios. Two of these newly unionized stores are located on Penn’s campus: the Penn Medicine Starbucks and the Starbucks on 34th and Walnut streets—right across the street from Hill College House. 

Before the official vote, workers at both of the Penn locations told The Daily Pennsylvanian (DP) that their employers engaged in union-busting practices in an attempt to prevent collective bargaining. These measures failed as the official vote to unionize at the Walnut Street location was unanimous and the Penn Medicine vote passed by a vote of 10-1.

In a letter to former Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson, the workers at the Walnut St. Starbucks wrote in solidarity, “We are forming our union because we recognize that the interests of Starbucks corporate are fundamentally opposed to our own interests.”

Outside of these local Starbucks, Philadelphia has encountered numerous other unionization efforts in the past year. Good Karma Cafe voted to unionize in March—forming Karma United, an affiliate of Philadelphia-based Workers United. Korshak Bagels, a South Philly shop, voted to unionize in June 2021, and they are currently negotiating and finalizing their first contract.

Moving forward

Whether this will be your first semester on campus or you’ve been here for years, there is a space for you to actively use your position to advocate for Penn employees and other workers in Philadelphia. 

When looking at the current moment and deciding how to make a genuine impact, Lyu advised students to reflect on how previous movements found their footing. 

Describing how SLAP reemerged in 2019, Lyu said that it was born out of a sustained connection she had made with a dining worker at Hillel Dining Hall. After a casual conversation with this worker, who explained to Lyu that management was not allowing them to celebrate Black History Month as visibly as they wanted to, the dining hall workers and students planned a joint rally to protest the leadership. 

From this first event, Lyu said that “there was a very palpable beauty, vision, and energy” because “for the first time in a long time, campus workers and students were really standing side by side.” 

Lyu added that the best activism is born out of hope and love. She urges students to see the humanity in each other and find a way to use their own skills and talents to improve what they see as the status quo. 

“Young people who are first coming to Penn, especially freshmen, are very curious. They see a lot of possibilities, and they want to know what they can contribute and what is right,” Lyu said. “People are really drawn to a positive vision which, when it is presented to them as something that is moral and truthful, becomes something they want to engage with to make a difference.”