GET-UP argues for union in front of Senate committee

WASHINGTON -- Penn graduate students and administrators brought the debate over graduate students' right to unionize to the nation's capital yesterday morning.

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) invited representatives from both sides, as well as labor officials, to a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing to make their cases.

Under a carved wooden seal of the United States in a dignified Senate hearing room, Specter stated that it is "unlikely" Congress would pass legislation on the issue this session -- but emphasized the importance of discussion for future decisions.

The debate raged centrally over whether graduate students are in a primarily educational or economic relationship with the University.

Graduate Employees Together-University of Pennsylvania, the would-be graduate student union, argued that it is an employee-employer relationship, stressing the teaching and research duties these students perform outside of their academic goals.

GET-UP's political spokeswoman Tina Collins, a joint History and Graduate School of Education doctoral candidate, testified before the senator on that point.

Collins said she was forced to teach a class in Latin American history, "even though I had never taken a graduate course in that field."

Attorney John Langel spoke on behalf of the University, arguing that since these students "overwhelmingly seek careers in academia," classroom experience is part of the educational process -- even if not in their specific field.

The issue of compensation took some of the spotlight as well.

Collins detailed the financial plight of graduate students who receive a standard annual stipend of $15,750.

"One recent Ph.D. recipient had to make the choice in his last year of study between adding his wife or their infant son to the health insurance plan," Collins said.

In an interview after the hearing, Langel argued that the students are receiving a free education in addition to their living stipend.

"It is not $15,000 -- it's really between $50,000 and $60,000," Langel said. "Now, you take 2,000 [graduate students, and] the cost is in the millions."

Langel added that using adjunct professors would be significantly more cost-efficient for Penn, but the goal of "training the next generation of university professors" is more important than cost.

GET-UP is an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers, which in turn is associated with the labor union AFL-CIO.

Specter was rare among Republicans in receiving the endorsement of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO for his re-election bid for a fifth senate term this fall.

AFT spokesman Jamie Horwitz denied that Specter called this meeting to appease his endorser.

"This definitely wasn't a big decision," Horwitz said. "He has a strong record on labor negotiations."

The hearing comes on the heels of the National Labor Relations Board's decision this summer that Brown University's graduate students do not have the right to unionize -- a decision in direct contradiction of the 2000 New York University ruling allowing graduate students to do just that.

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