Voting no on ratifying our Tentative Agreement means voting against adopting this Agreement as our first union contract. Graduate Workers would then need to return to negotiations with the Penn administration and continue the bargaining process with no guarantee that we would be able to secure a stronger agreement.

If a simple majority of votes (50%+1) are cast in favor of ratifying this Agreement, it will be adopted as our first union contract immediately upon ratification. Once ratified, Graduate Workers will be covered by the protections and guaranteed the rights included in our contract. If a large supermajority of Graduate Workers participate in voting YES, it will demonstrate to Penn that we are united together and prepared to effectively enforce our rights.

If Graduate Workers vote against ratification, this means voting to reject the Tentative Agreement and indefinitely delaying the ratification of a first union contract. In this event, Graduate Workers would likely withdraw from previously agreed-upon articles, and the Penn administration could, and likely would, do the same. Penn admin could withdraw from any aspect of the Agreement and refuse to agree to any and all language included in the current Tentative Agreement. 

Reopening negotiations would mean Graduate Workers would not be covered by a union contract until another Agreement was reached and ratified. There is no guarantee that any new Tentative Agreement, if one could be reached, would be better than the current Tentative Agreement.

Immediately upon ratification, Graduate Workers will be covered by the protections and guaranteed the rights included in our contract. Wage increases will go into effect starting April 1st. The immigration legal fund will be established within 90 days of ratification. The new dependent healthcare fund will go into effect beginning August 1st, 2026. 

Graduate Workers in the bargaining unit are covered by this Agreement. The bargaining unit consists of all currently enrolled Penn graduate and professional students who provide paid research or instructional services for the University (including those who serve as Teaching Assistants, Teaching Fellows, Research Assistants, Research Fellows, Pre-Doctoral Trainees, Student Workers, and Educational Fellowship Recipients). This includes Graduate Workers serving as graders and instructors of record. This excludes Educational Fellowship Recipients in lab rotations in the first year of the Biology PhD Program and the first and second years of the Biomedical Graduate Studies PhD Program.

All currently-enrolled Penn PhD and Masters students at Penn who 1) are currently in a paid teaching or research position or 2) will or may work in a paid teaching or research position in the future can sign up as members of GETUP-UAW.

To sign up as a member of GETUP-UAW, fill out the form at this link and:

1. Select “I accept membership in GETUP-UAW”
2. Complete the membership form and sign to authorize membership and dues deductions
3. Elect whether or not to make an additional voluntary contribution to the UAW political action fund

Paying union dues and signing up for union membership are optional. Grad workers may instead elect to decline membership in GETUP-UAW. Because everyone in the bargaining unit must receive all of the benefits of the contract, non-members will be required to pay an equivalent “fair share” fee. This is because union contracts must benefit everyone and everyone is entitled equal protections. If you elect to decline membership, within 30 days of ratification you must instead elect to pay a fair share fee equivalent to union dues. You can decline membership and elect to pay fair share fees by filling out the form at this link, selecting “I decline membership in GETUP-UAW,” and completing the linked form to authorize deductions.

Union dues consist of a one-time $10 initiation fee and a contribution of 1.44% of each Graduate Worker’s pay. Dues are deducted from each paycheck Graduate Workers receive from Penn while working in a paid teaching or research position. Signing up as a member authorizes Penn to automatically deduct dues from members’ paychecks.

Dues are how Graduate Workers pool our resources to be able to grow and sustain a powerful union capable of pushing back against Penn’s billions. Here’s a breakdown of what your union dues help make possible:

• About one-third of our dues go to our local union, GETUP-UAW, to provide financial resources that give us access to legal advice, experienced staff organizers, communication and data infrastructure, and other materials necessary for us to enforce our contract and improve on it during future negotiations. 
• Another one-third of our dues go to the UAW International Union. The UAW International provides us with expertise and support regarding negotiations, contract enforcement, legal matters, health and safety, insurance benefits, and many other issues. 
• Another one-third of our dues go into the UAW Strike and Defense Fund, which maintains our ability to take strike action if necessary. If we had needed to strike to win our current agreement then each striking graduate worker would have received $500 per week. Some of this money is also used to organize other workers, like Penn Postdocs and Research Associates, academic employees at Harvard, Columbia, Caltech, and USC, NIH Postdocs, and more!

Penn graduate students who are signed up as dues-paying members while not in a paid teaching or research position will not have dues deducted from their paychecks. The University will only deduct dues from Graduate Workers’ paychecks while they are in bargaining unit positions.

Yes. International students and workers have the same rights as US citizens to join and participate in your union. 

Higher education in the U.S. has a large percentage of international workers. Over the past two decades, tens of thousands of international academic workers have been part of organizing efforts and have been represented by UAW-affiliated local unions.

Over 30% or Graduate Workers at Penn are on F1 and J1 visas. Our contract is the result of thousands of international workers standing together with their colleagues. None of these have faced any visa issues as a result of participation in union activities.

V-CAP is the UAW’s political action program, which includes UAW’s PAC (Political Action Committee). The PAC fund is made up of voluntary contributions from UAW members, both active and retired. The money is used to support political candidates who are pro labor and have earned the endorsement of the UAW Community Action Program (CAP). The UAW CAP is UAW’s non-partisan political advocacy body. CAP educates members on political issues that affect them and their communities. CAP also registers members to vote, and works to elect politicians who stand with workers. As part of this effort, CAP endorses candidates who have a record of backing legislation that supports unions and addresses issues facing workers. CAP is not tied to any political party. 

You can sign up to make regular voluntary contributions to UAW V-CAP when you sign up to become a dues-paying member of GETUP-UAW. Only U.S. citizens eligible to vote in U.S. elections can make voluntary contributions to UAW V-CAP.