All change is historically placed. Therefore, all organizing must be historically informed. Throughout the rest of the guide, we try to give in depth looks at various issues with Penn and in Philadelphia. In this, we try to give a broad overview and timeline of what organizing and agitation efforts have taken place over theContinue reading “A Recent History of Campus Organizing”
Tag Archives: labor
The Union Fight at Penn
Graduate Employees Together-University of Pennsylvania and United RAs at Penn are uniting efforts to push for worker’s rights.Credit: Sydney Curran substantially updated from 2024, by Anonymous, 2025 Join Your Union Now! From the start of the day, when the lights turn on, to the end, when everyone goes home, it is labor that keeps theContinue reading “The Union Fight at Penn”
Off-Campus Organizations
There are countless Philly-based organizations doing transformative work in the city, whether that be in labor reform, housing advocacy, racial justice, or food security. Here are a few groups to get involved with!
A Case of Institutional Failure: Penn’s Response to COVID-19
For many, the pandemic was a breaking point: watching those with power and wealth profit while everyday people lost their jobs and their lives spurred many into radical action. Had the people leading our institutions taken the right steps to save lives instead of protecting their reputations and profits, thousands of lives could have been saved. Penn is no exception, and activists and community members have had to fight fiercely to hold the University accountable.
Penn’s Problematic History of Union-busting
As workers across the country demand better treatment and stronger representation, Penn stands in the way of organizing workers on campus and acts as a bystander while companies across Philadelphia implement similar union-busting tactics. Corporations, like Penn, use common union-busting strategies to keep workers divided, demoralized, and controlled.
A Recent History of Organizing at Penn
The Penn community rallies in response to injustice on- and off-campus. Among some of the most notable events that occurred in the past year were pushes for unionization from multiple groups, organizing against Penn’s role in gentrification, large protests regarding climate justice, and student protestors facing disciplinary actions and arrests from the University.
The Ongoing Fight for RA Unionization at Penn
by an organizer with United RAs at Penn On March 14, 2023, the residential advisors (RAs) of Penn’s college houses filed for unionization, a historic first for student workers. The unionization effort was an inevitable response to Penn’s relentless and shameless mistreatment of its workers. We intend to use our collective power to create aContinue reading “The Ongoing Fight for RA Unionization at Penn”
Inside the Fight for a Grad Student Union
research student employees at Penn face low stipends, unclear expectations of work hours, insufficient benefits and campus accessibility, a lack of protections for international students, all-too-common harassment and abuse, and an employer that falls short of serving the broader West Philadelphia community.
How Penn and Other Universities are Turning Teaching into Temp Work
Penn is not only a school; it is also a workplace for over 40,000 people – including faculty, staff, postdoctoral researchers and instructors, graduate researchers and TAs, other student workers, healthcare employees, and subcontracted campus workers. What are the labor conditions of the tens of thousands of people whose work makes Penn work?
A Case of Institutional Failure: Penn’s Response to COVID-19
Over the past three years, the COVID-19 pandemic has ravaged the globe. So much loss could have been avoided if the people leading our institutions took the right steps to save lives instead of protecting their reputations and profits. Penn is no exception.
Penn Disorientation Guide 