Penn’s School of Arts and Sciences graduate student government unanimously passed a resolution supporting fair bargaining negotiations between Graduate Employees Together - University of Pennsylvania and the University.
The resolution was passed at SASGov’s general body meeting on Feb. 27 and co-sponsored by over a dozen SASGov constituents. It urged GET-UP and Penn’s administration to “engage in prompt, transparent, and good-faith negotiation” to establish a “fair and equitable” contract.
“SASGov supports the GET-UP’s current efforts to achieve an equitable agreement for Penn’s students that affirms the value of graduate student workers, particularly SASGov’s constituents, to the University,” the resolution read.
GET-UP began negotiating its first contract with Penn last October. Union members have recently held several rallies in an effort to secure a contract with Penn.
At the time of publication, the group has put forward 33 articles of which only five have been agreed to by the University. In recent negotiations, Penn administrators struck down multiple anti-discrimination proposals, which one union organizer described as “an attack on DEI.”
The resolution recognized the efforts of GET-UP to “secure protections and improve living and working conditions for students,” and emphasized the importance of protecting international students and implementing stronger policies to prevent “anti-discrimination, harassment, and abuse.”
It also noted that Penn is “the only Ivy League institution where graduate student workers have voted in favor of unionization but have yet to obtain a ratified contract.”
“SASGov supports a commitment to fair bargaining from both GETUP-UAW and Penn administration as delays in negotiations have negative effects on the student body we serve,” an SASGov representative wrote in a statement to The Daily Pennsylvanian.
While the document recognized the “overlapping interests” of SASGov and GET-UP and described an “interest in aligning their efforts,” the resolution stated it was not “an endorsement of either side.”
“I want to be very very clear that SASGov is not involved in union negotiations,” SASGov President Drew Behrendt wrote in a statement to the DP. “We have members who are involved in negotiations and are active union participants, but we are distinct in our mission and the way we serve students.”
Behrendt also explained why SASGov chose to pass a resolution independent of other student government organizations.
“SASGov chose to take initiative to set an example other student governments could follow if they chose,” Behrendt wrote. “We believed GAPSA would be slower in passing a resolution than our timeframe allowed and we wanted to vote to handle this matter before we enter the final meetings of the semester.”
Copies of the resolution were sent to GET-UP, the Office of the Provost, and the DP.
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