Penn State graduate student workers are voting this week on whether to form a union, with all teaching, research and administrative support graduate assistants eligible to vote.
After years of organizing and petitioning, the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board approved the election.
According to the Coalition of Graduate Employees’ website, the union is to ensure grad workers have legal workplace protections and are fairly compensated for their work.
Jess Rafalko, a doctoral student in the English department, said the current unionization efforts started with the COVID-19 pandemic and a desire for more workplace protections.
"The fundamental thing about a union is it just allows us as workers to have a more democratic say in our workplace," Rafalko said. "It raises the floor of what’s possible for all of us — what’s the bare minimum standard, without putting a ceiling on it."
Now, five years later, it’s time to vote on whether to form a union.
Penn State's position is that grad students are students first, and already have existing channels to file complaints with the university.
“The University deeply values the contributions of our graduate students,” said Penn State Executive Vice President and Provost Fotis Sotiropoulos. “We also believe graduate students are students, first and foremost, at Penn State to pursue an advanced education and research training. The institution remains committed to supporting the academic journey, professional growth, and well-being of students who are integral to the University’s scholarly mission.”
Rafalko said you can't separate the fact of grad students being students from the fact of them being workers.
"And as workers, we do not currently have the rights and protections and benefits and pay and all of those things," Rafalko said. "We’re just asking for some acknowledgement of that labor and certainly compensation for that labor.”
Penn State grad workers voted against a union in 2018, but Rafalko believes it’ll be different this time around.
"Strategically, what differs this time around is, we’ve taken the time as organizers to talk to grad workers in all colleges, in all departments," Rafalko said. "And we’ve had those conversations, and those conversations have been going on now for almost three years."
Penn State’s faculty and staff are both also working on unionization efforts.
In-person voting at the University Park campus goes from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Wednesday in Dewey Room W043 Pattee Library. Voting at the Hershey campus already took place. Voting at all other campuses with graduate students — Penn State Behrend, Harrisburg and Great Valley — is through mail-in ballots, which must be received by the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board office in Harrisburg by Wednesday, November 12, at 5 p.m. to be counted.
