Penn State graduate student workers have overwhelmingly voted to form a union, according to a social media post by the Coalition of Graduate Students at Penn State.
The Pennsylvania Labor Relations Coalition counted the 2,080 graduate student votes Thursday in Harrisburg, and 1,882 of them — or about 90% — voted yes.
Organizers say the goal of the union is to ensure grad workers have legal workplace protections and are fairly compensated for their work.
Maddy Jupina is a research assistant in the department of communication arts and sciences.
“With a union, we finally have a real voice to improve our working conditions so that graduate employees here can thrive,” Jupina said.
The graduate students are organizing through the UAW, or United Auto Workers, which has worked with academic workers at other universities.
The next steps for the union is to vote in a governing board and negotiate their first contract with Penn State.
Penn State’s faculty and staff are both also working on unionization efforts.
