Yesterday the Penn State administration announced that instead of respecting the overwhelming democratic decision of graduate workers to form a union, Penn State is seeking to further delay negotiations towards a fair contract by appealing the legal decision to include Research Assistants in our union. This means that the legal decision made in August determining that RAs are employees will be reviewed by the full Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board (PLRB). In yesterday’s email from the university administration, Penn State failed to include the fact that over 2,000 grad workers voted by an overwhelming 90% margin in favor of forming a union.
It is deeply disappointing that the university administration has chosen not to respect the clear will of graduate workers who made our voices heard by voting overwhelmingly in favor of forming our union. We all know that RAs are workers who are essential to the research operations of Penn State. Tens of thousands of graduate student research assistants at dozens of other universities across the country have formed unions and successfully negotiated contracts that have made significant improvements to working conditions.
Grad workers will need to continue to show Penn State that we overwhelmingly support forming a union that includes all Research Assistants and are committed to fighting to improve our workplace through collective bargaining. Stay tuned for more information and next steps. In the meantime, we are proceeding with electing our bargaining committee and collecting bargaining surveys to determine bargaining priorities.
While Penn State continues to fight against grad workers, we will keep fighting for ourselves and our rights. Despite admin’s various delays, we have proven time and time again that forming a union is the will of grad workers at Penn State. It’s important that we all continue to make our voices heard, starting with filling out the bargaining survey. It will take all of us working together to continue our fight to improve working conditions for all grad workers.
In Solidarity,
Lucas Brefka
Research Assistant
Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics
Jess Rafalko
Research Assistant
English, College of Liberal Arts