About 500 people rallied in front of Penn State’s Old Main administrative building Tuesday, asking the university to allow research assistants and trainees to join a graduate employees union vote. The rally was organized by the Coalition of Graduate Employees.
On its Graduate Student Union FAQs page, the university says, “Penn State acknowledges the right of teaching assistants (TAs) and administrative support assistants (ASAs) to unionize and respects their role in supporting the University’s educational mission. However, we do not support the unionization of research assistants (RAs) and trainees, as their primary role is that of students first.”
When graduate assistants organized a unionization vote in 2018, Penn State argued to the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board that graduate assistants were not employees. But the PLRB ruled they were under the Pennsylvania Employee Relations Act.
The PLRB is again determining who can be a part of the proposed union and whether or not an election should be held. The PLRB is currently determining hearing dates on those questions.
Claire Crispen, a teaching assistant in the English department, said the goal for the rally was to discourage Penn State’s administration from delaying the vote or limiting who can take part.
“Penn State Administration, they are claiming that RAs and trainees are not part of our bargaining unit, even though that was already litigated in our favor in 2018. They are going to take us to a hearing, probably like sometime in June,” Crispen said. “But hopefully they can drop that at any time. That’s our goal here is hopefully for them to drop the hearing and allow us to have the vote more quickly.”
Joseph Heimerl is an aerospace engineering research assistant. He said he does not see the union vote failing like it did in 2018.
“I absolutely think that there's going to be a different outcome. The entire set of people involved in 2025 is completely different. I think that there's nothing that would indicate that we're going to face the same outcome. I think that we have a strong position and we're going to win our union, inevitably.”
Tahir Haideri is a biomedical engineering research assistant. He said the union vote will help international students to negotiate with the university.
“It's really important that whenever a contract is being negotiated, that we have a seat at the table, and that our voices are heard and that our concerns are heard,” Haideri said. “And I think for the most part, our issues are the same as other graduate students, but there are also other things that we would like to advocate for, and a union gives us a legal platform to be able to do that.”
On its FAQ page, Penn State says there are already ways for graduate students to raise concerns without a union. It says, “Penn State encourages all graduate students to voice their concerns through established channels, which include faculty advisers, program chairs, associate deans for graduate education, and the Fox Graduate School’s ombudsperson program.”
Haideri said he encourages those on the fence about whether a union would benefit them to attend upcoming meetings and events.