Wearing shirts that read "Penn works because we do" and carrying "Drop the appeal" signs, more than 100 Penn graduate students and their allies assembled yesterday in front of College Hall. The rally was an attempt by Graduate Employees Together-University of Pennsylvania to show the administration that the majority of graduate students want a union and that it should allow the election process to be carried out. According to GET-UP leaders, they want a promise from the University's administration that it will "negotiate a contract in good faith once GET-UP wins the election." "The point of the rally is to show the administration that people want their votes counted," said GET-UP Co-Chairwoman Elizabeth Williamson. "People want to see this election be a fair and free one." City Council member Blondell Reynolds-Brown spoke at the rally about the upcoming unionization election and the University's response. "Unfortunately, there is delay and interference," Brown said. "But after this, you will be members of the American Federation of Teachers. I salute your collective efforts." While supporters chanted "Union now" and "Vote yes," Jerry Jordan, vice president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, spoke about the right of graduate students to unionize. "You have every right to vote. You have every right to be represented by the AFT," Jordan said. "I urge you to get your other colleagues to vote and vote yes. I urge the University of Pennsylvania to drop the appeal." Undergraduate Assembly member and College senior Lincoln Ellis also spoke at yesterday's rally. "Let us send a message to the administration," he said. "Drop the appeal, and let democracy work." The rally was also meant to show that unionization would not drive a wedge between graduate students and their mentors and professors. "Unions don't bring in adversarial relationships. Employment brings in adversarial relationships," said John Hogan, the Green Party candidate for City Council. "You don't have to hate your mentor any more than you have to join the Mafia" to be in a union. Fellow speaker and union supporter Kristen Lawler, agreed with Hogan's sentiment. "My relationships to the professors in my department [are] stronger, not weaker," said Lawler, a doctoral student from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, where some graduate students recently unionized. Penn Political Science Professor Anne Norton agreed with Lawler. "I am on your side, and I am an admiring onlooker," Norton said. Penn alumna Maggie Dickinson came from New York City to show her support at yesterday's rally. "I love Penn, and as a proud alumnus, I stand with these graduate students," she said. From the first university in Pennsylvania to have its graduate students unionize came Temple University Graduate Students' Association President April Logan, who also showed her support, as did Wharton professor Ed Herman and City Council member David Cohen.
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