Negotiations continue amidst strike authorization vote

Before our strike authorization vote was complete, graduate workers also met with Penn admin for two bargaining sessions last week, on Monday, November 17, and Thursday, November 20. During these sessions:

• Penn admin passed counterproposals on Compensation, Retirement, Vacation, and Healthcare.
• Graduate workers passed counterproposals on Childcare, Retirement, and Vacation.

In admin’s Healthcare response, Penn agreed to give graduate workers access to Penn’s Aetna Vision Preferred plan at no cost. This is a big win, and would ensure free vision insurance coverage to graduate workers on the same terms as other Penn employees. However, admin has still not agreed to the majority of our Healthcare proposal, including full dental and dependent coverage at no cost to graduate workers.

Penn admin also made substantial movement on retirement, offering graduate workers the ability to enroll in Penn’s Supplemental Retirement Annuity (SRA) Plan. This would allow grad workers to make optional pre-tax contributions to a retirement account, a significant improvement upon the status quo.

Unfortunately, admin made little movement on Compensation – increasing Penn’s minimum salary offer to $44,500 and minimum hourly wage to $19.50 – and rejected our proposal to grant graduate workers access to Penn’s Employee Assistance Program.

In their Vacation counterproposal, Penn admin clarified that graduate workers in teaching positions would be guaranteed time off on all academic breaks. Graduate workers in research roles would be offered 8 vacation days, moving from the 5 proposed in their last counterproposal.

The next bargaining session on Thursday, December 4, will be the first bargaining session since the results of our overwhelming strike authorization vote were finalized. We hope that Penn admin will demonstrate their commitment to reaching a fair agreement without a work stoppage; but they now know that graduate workers are prepared to take action if they do not.