Posts tagged University of Pennsylvania
Penn graduate student workers could strike next month
January 14, 2026 // Penn, the largest employer in Philadelphia, has seen a wave of student-worker organizing in recent years, including resident assistants, graduate students, postdocs and research associates, as well as training physicians in the University of Pennsylvania Health System. The region has also seen a couple other university strikes in recent years. In 2023 graduate workers at Temple University walked off the job for 42 days amid contract negotiations, and in a separate action at Rutgers University, educators, researchers, and clinicians went on strike for a week.
RA union launches petition to stop Penn from eliminating select graduate RA positions
December 15, 2025 // United RAs at Penn launched a petition Tuesday that it said aims to stop the University from eliminating certain graduate resident advisor positions.
Year in Review: Wave of campus labor organizing gains momentum, brings one new union to Penn
December 12, 2025 // From graduate student workers to research associates and postdoctoral scholars, 2025 marked an unprecedented surge in labor organizing at Penn. The past 12 months saw the formation of a new union on campus, alongside a strike authorization vote amid ongoing negotiations. The Daily Pennsylvanian compiled a timeline of unionization efforts on and around campus over the last year.
Cal State University unions seek notice of federal subpoenas in antisemitism investigation
December 10, 2025 // The conflict between Cal State and the employee unions comes amid a sweeping campaign by the White House to crack down on colleges and universities that it accuses of fostering political views with which it disagrees, including protesting Israel’s military offensive in Gaza and supporting the rights of transgender students. The University of California system and the University of Pennsylvania are among the colleges facing EEOC investigations alleging a hostile work environment for Jewish employees. Cal State says it has not received a subpoena related to the systemwide EEOC investigation and that there have not been any findings, settlement discussions or other federal actions in regard to it. The EEOC did not respond to a request seeking comment.
We finally know who paid for Josh Shapiro’s inauguration celebrations (kinda)
August 12, 2025 // A fundraising pitch prepared by Shapiro’s inauguration committee and reviewed by Spotlight PA promised high-dollar contributors face time with the governor. “VIP tickets to the Inaugural Celebration include access to the VIP lounge through the evening,” fine print on the document states. “A clutch with Governor-Elect Shapiro and Lt. Governor-Elect [Austin] Davis will be held in the VIP lounge at the start of the event.” Unlike some states, cities, and the federal government, Pennsylvania does not require top elected officials to disclose who contributes to celebrations held to mark their entrance into office. Shapiro has declined to do so voluntarily.
Postdoctoral scholars and research assistants at Penn vote to unionize
July 24, 2025 // Research Associates and Postdocs United at Penn would join the United Auto Workers labor union, which represents over 120,000 academic workers across the country, including 4,000 graduate workers at Penn who voted to unionize last year. Will Drayer, a postdoctoral researcher in materials science and engineering at Penn and a forefront member of the campaign to unionize, said the next steps include democratically electing a bargaining committee and surveying members to establish clear priorities before entering contract negotiations with the university.
Penn Museum workers demand raises, protest Univ. pay proposals in picket after authorizing strike
July 10, 2025 // “The average annual salary in the bargaining unit is less than $45,000,” Shaw said. “We’re looking for raises that will not only allow workers to keep up with increases in the cost of living, but to do better over time.” Union leaders also handed out flyers that emphasized Penn’s continued “lowball pay proposals” despite the University’s “annual operating budget of $4.7 billion.” “It’s not so much to ask from the University of Pennsylvania, the largest private employer and one of the wealthiest in the city,” Shaw said.
Guest column: Union democracy? Not so much
May 21, 2024 // The AFL-CIO Philadelphia Council announced GET-UP may be Philadelphia’s largest private sector union. Nonetheless, GET-UP did not secure — as some overzealous headlines suggest — an “overwhelming majority.” Yes, the 1,807-to-97 vote to unionize was undoubtedly one-sided. However, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) reported 4,003 eligible voters, meaning only 45 percent of the total workforce supported unionization. Other reports suggest a lower denominator of 3,700 voters. Even then, that’s only 48 percent — clearly less than “the majority of the employees in a unit” seemingly described in the National Labor Relations Act. Yet, due to federal court decisions that strayed from the statutory text long ago, UAW only needed a simple majority
Penn grad student workers vote to unionize after 2 decades of advocacy
May 7, 2024 // The Graduate Employees Together University of Pennsylvania, also known as Get-UP, announced Friday that just over 1,900 of the 3,700 eligible voters turned out last week, with 95% voting in favor of joining the United Auto Workers union, which represents several other graduate student unions at colleges across the country.
America’s newest doctors fuel efforts to unionize
April 17, 2024 // And it's not just younger doctors. Those more established in their careers are also unionizing as they see the industry changing in ways that they think undermine their profession. In recent months, attending physicians at Salem Hospital, owned by Mass General Brigham, and a Cedars Sinai-owned anesthesiology practice filed to unionize. About 600 doctors at Allina Health in Minnesota and Wisconsin last fall agreed to form what appears to be the largest union of private sector physicians.