Grad unionization efforts progress across country nationwide

In an ongoing, nationwide drive, graduate student union groups have recently won three separate legal battles across the country, gaining recognition from labor relations boards. The schools include the California State University system, the University of Washington and the Research Foundation at the State University of New York's College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

At Penn, the University administration and members of Graduate Employees Together-University of Pennsylvania remain at a standstill over the issue of unionization.

In California, the state labor board recognized that California State University graduate unionization efforts can go forward. The board found that the union election received the support of the majority of affected teaching assistants.

Spokeswoman for the California Alliance of Academic Student Employees Xochitl Lopez has said that they will now work to create a bargaining unit in which graduate students will seek better working conditions.

At the University of Washington, the Public Employment Relations Commission announced the results from the teaching and research assistant representation election. Of the 2,370 ballots cast, a majority were in favor of unionization.

The University of Washington administration decided not to appeal the labor board's ruling, which allowed the 59 percent to 41 percent vote in favor of unionization to prevail.

"While the university had been considering an appeal with regard to certain categories of [research assistants], the decision has been made not to pursue such an appeal, regardless of the outcome of the election," the University of Washington Human Resources Division said in a statement prior to the ballots being counted.

Graduate students from the university are pleased that the election was left uncontested by the school's administration.

"We're absolutely thrilled with the outcome of the election and are really anxious to get into bargaining," said University of Washington seventh-year philosophy doctoral candidate Kristen Intemann, who is also a member of the collective bargaining team. "We've been working towards this for a really long time. Basically, it's been a four-year struggle to create a union."

"We're very pleased that the administration decided not to appeal and [that] we're able to let everyone's vote be counted. We firmly believe that we as employees should have the right to have a union and have a say in the terms and conditions of our employment," Intemann added.

In a third decision, the National Labor Relations Board recently ruled that select graduate students from the Research Foundation at the State University of New York's College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse may unionize. The foundation, however, has said that it plans to appeal this decision.

On Penn's campus, GET-UP members are pleased with the news of the recent decisions furthering graduate student unionization efforts nationwide.

"Such an enlightened reaction from the University of Washington officials is the way that collective bargaining is ideally supposed to work," GET-UP spokesman Dillon Brown said.

"I feel that the strong decisions in favor of these graduate employees marks a growing trend of the clear recognition of collective bargaining rights of graduate employees across the nation, and this can only bode well for GET-UP's goals," Brown added.

The NLRB held an election in February of 2003 for graduate students to vote on the issue of unionization.

However, since the election, the votes remain uncounted pending the legal appeal filed by the University, arguing that graduate students are not employees and therefore do not hold the right to unionize.

GET-UP members and supporters held a two-day strike on the one-year anniversary of the election. Nevertheless, the University is continuing its appeal, and the two sides still remain opposed on the issue of graduate student unionization.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.