by Anonymous
Since 2023, 3 new unions have formed at Penn — United RAs at Penn (representing Resident Advisors, graduate and undergraduate), GET-UP (representing graduate workers across schools) and the Committee of Residents and Interns at Penn (representing residents and fellows at Penn Medicine). The success of organized labor at Penn over the past year makes clear that even under harsh conditions, collective action is capable of producing far-reaching and meaningful results.
Organizing a union is more complex than it first appears — it isn’t enough for a group of workers to come together and declare themselves a union. Before the union is able to bargain with management for wages or better conditions, it first has to be recognized by the employer. Recognition can come in two ways: either an employer can choose to voluntarily recognize the new labor union, or they can be forced to by the National Labor Relation Board, a federal agency that supervises union elections and investigates unfair labor practices. In recent memory, The University of Pennsylvania has never voluntarily recognized a union, refusing to recognize the Libraries United, the Medical Residents, GET-UP, and RA union. Refusal by an employer to recognize a union of their own volition makes the process far more difficult — bringing the NLRB into things can trigger a drawn-out fight for recognition, as the flowchart on their website makes clear. After a petition is filed and the regional NLRB director issues a decision on any points of controversy, an election can be held to finally certify the union as the legitimate representative of an organization’s worker. Taking advantage of recent rules changes that expedite the process for calling an election, all three unions formed at Penn this year had their petitions approved and won overwhelming majorities in their NLRB votes.
In the face of nascent organizing efforts, the strategy of Penn’s administration has generally been to throw everything at the wall and see what sticks. One of their favorites is simply saying that their employees aren’t actually employees. After beginning the organizing process in March of 2023 and sending in the requisite signatures, the RA union was refused recognition by Penn administration, who attempted to hold back a vote by the NLRB by arguing that resident advisors weren’t actually workers. This stunt backfired spectacularly when, during their legal battle with union lawyers, RAs were able to produce old contracts, websites and lists of on-job duties that made clear that they were clearly Penn employees, and that administration had even referred to them as such before their battle for unionization began. Penn tried the same tactics with graduate workers, to great success — for a time. Penn’s graduate union, GET-UP, has been fighting to be recognized for over twenty years. GET-UP’s first effort to unionize began in 2001, but fell apart after Penn refused to count the results of a 2003 vote to recognize the union for ONE AND A HALF YEARS before the NLRB ruled that graduate workers at private universities do not have the right to unionize. In 2016, when the NLRB reversed that ruling, a new effort to unionize began. This effort, affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers, withdrew their petition in 2018. Finally, a new GET-UP affiliated with the United Auto Workers went public with an organizing drive. Penn once again tried to delay this process by contesting exactly which graduate workers, at which school, in which year of the program, really counted as employees. While this delayed the process, it could not stop GET-UP from successfully filing for an election in May of 2023.
While getting an election is a major step for any union, it’s only half the process — winning that election is another battle entirely, one that Penn fights tooth and nail to keep unions from winning.
Some of their tactics are gentle — treating workers with more respect, even offering some improvements to their working lives, all to convince them that a formal union isn’t necessary to make conditions better (the very threat of worker’s power is enough to force concessions!) But some are more forceful — one of their favorites is the dissemination of an FAQ that warns workers of the terrible dangers that forming a union brings with it — the personal relationship between workers and bosses will be threatened, union bureaucrats will speak for you, you’ll have to pay union dues (GET-UP and the Penn AAUP have both written phenomenal takedowns of these misleading “information” pages)! In the end, however, these efforts were for naught — 87% of RAs voted to form their union— 88% of residents and fellows voted to unionize Penn Med — 95% of graduate workers did the same.
Even once a union has been formed, the process of negotiating a new contract with management, with adequate adjustments in compensation and working standards, can be a lengthy process. For some of Penn’s unions, however, the benefits of organizing are already being felt. United RAs of Penn has already ratified their first contract with Penn. Despite stonewalling and delaying tactics from administration, negotiations have produced an agreement for a $3,000 stipend, a complete meal plan, new procedures for due process before disciplinary action and new grievance and arbitration processes that give workers more of a say in the resolution of disputes.
Organizing at Penn can be a long and difficult process — in the face of the power of Penn’s administration, it can be difficult to imagine that making a difference is even possible. The many victories of organized labor over the past year, however, show us that with enough effort, enough patience and enough will, no obstacle is too large to be overcome. A better university is possible — but only if we fight for it.
written Summer 2024
Penn Disorientation Guide 