Categories: Updates

Grad workers near two new tentative agreements despite admin delays

During last Thursday’s session:

Admin presented counterproposals on Workers Compensation and Job Expectations and Scheduling of Work.
Graduate workers presented a counterproposal on Support for International and Immigrant Workers.

At last week’s session, admin responded to two articles which we have gone back and forth on several times: Workers Compensation and Job Expectations and Scheduling of Work. We believe we are close to an agreement on Job Expectations, though admin was not ready to agree to our proposal during bargaining. We were unable to respond to admin’s proposal on Workers Compensation in the session because they needed to gather further information about their own policies. We are hopeful that we can sign tentative agreements on both of these articles in our next session.

Graduate workers presented our first counterproposal on Support for International and Immigrant Workers. In our discussion with admin, we clarified the central importance of three aspects of the article: equity through visa fee reimbursement, timely and adequate responses to visa-related inquiries, and protection for international grad workers from Trump’s attacks. Our discussion with admin leaves us hopeful that there is a path forward to win an article that provides meaningful support and rights for the one-third of us who are international and immigrant workers.

Despite having productive exchanges on these three articles, admin continues to frustrate graduate workers by withholding counterproposals. When grad workers asked about the progress of key articles such as Prohibition of Discrimination, Harassment, and Abusive Conduct, Union Security, and Access Needs, admin shut down any expectation of receiving responses to those articles in Thursday’s session. Admin has had ample time to prepare responses on these and other important articles. But instead of returning them to us so we can continue good faith negotiations, admin lectured us on how negotiations can take a long time. Negotiations do not have to drag out—such delays are the result of Penn admin’s delay tactics.

As always, continued movement in the bargaining room depends on ongoing demonstrations of grad worker power. Sign up here to attend an upcoming bargaining session and bring your coworkers along! Our next bargaining session will take place on Tuesday, August 5th from 10:30 AM to 4:30 PM at the Inn at Penn.

In solidarity,

The GETUP-UAW Bargaining Committee

Clara Abbott

Emily Aunins

Peter Bailer

Oishi Bardhan

Kal Brown

Caitlin Frazee

Katelyn Friedline

Adina Goldstein

Sam Herrmann

Jimmy Kelliher