get-up

31 October 2001 - 4:17 pm

get-up

grad students--oops, *employees*--at the university of pennsylvania (my place of learning and employ) are in the process of unionizing. the union is called get-up: graduate employees together--upenn (not a very creative title, i know, but i didn't think of it and anyway that's the kind of thing you get when you start with the acronym and work backwards. the temple u. grad union has a better full name (temple university graduate student association) but a worse acronym (tugsa)). this entry is probably going to turn into a little rah-rah pro-union fest, but hey, it's my life.

PENN WORKS BECAUSE WE DO

so the issues that get-up is about are:

• grad students are employees too, and as such need a voice at the figurative (and literal) table when issues affecting us are decided upon.
• more specifically, there are three problematic areas here, now.
  • health care: this year's health plan is $400/year more expensive and has worse benefits. i won't bore you with the details. if you care, see get-up's web site at www.getuponline.org.
  • working conditions: they vary widely by department, but some grad employees work under unacceptable conditions. e.g. the modern language depts' intro classes (e.g. french 101) are taught entirely by grad students, but those teachers have no offices. NO offices, AT ALL. this is what penn undergrads are getting for their $37,210/year (this year) costs. that is just one example. others include outrageous teaching assistant duties (like picking up professorial dry-cleaning), doing nothing but photocopying (okay, not a lot of work, but hardly enjoyable or a learning experience), and grading 100 essay exams in 2 days.
  • salary: they pay (most of) us a stipend, and waive our tuition. thank you for that, penn. but, our stipends are, on average, $14,400/year. a study done in the city of philadelphia shows that a single, healthy adult needs a salary of at least $16,000/year.

UNITED WE STAND, DIVIDED WE BEG

so we need a union. turns out there are a bunch of hoops to jump through, and the university administration is fighting us all the way (of course). at the moment, we are trying to get the required 30% of the potential bargaining unit to sign cards saying they want a union. when we get that 30%, we can call for a vote, in which the potential members of the union will vote for or against having the union. then, after we successfully beat the university's attempts to get the union broken up, we start what i'm sure will be the joyful task of negotiating a contract.

we had a rally today.

penn has money
they can pay
why'd they sign our health away?

teaching, research, grading too
penn works because we do!

60 or so people were there, including some reps from tugsa (the temple u. union, remember?), aft (american federation of teachers, with whom we're affiliated), the penn law library union (who knew that the penn law library had their own union? anyone? bueller?), and the faculty formation of the city college of philadelphia (ff-ccp: they don't have a catchy name OR slogan, but we appreciate their support anyway). we chanted, we held posters, we cheered and booed. we heard speeches from international students, from students with families, from students with health problems, from other unions, from get-up leadership. it was all very motivating. it wasn't too cold to be standing outside. life is good.

COLLECTIVE VOICE MEANS MORE CHOICE

i'm thankful to live in a country where i have the legal right to speak my mind, rally for a cause, protest unfair employment practices, and change my fate.

what do we want? A UNION!
when do we want it? NOW!