Workers' Rights Denied at UPENN!

Send-a-Fax: Tell James S. Riepe, chairman of the Board of Trustees at the University of Pennsylvania and vice president of the T. Rowe Price Group, to respect the democratic rights of UPENN's graduate employees to form a union and bargain a contract. Now is the time for Mr. Riepe to end the Penn trustees' anti-democratic stand against workers' rights and to avert a planned walkout among UPENN's graduate teaching and research assistants. Add your own words to the message, describing why collective bargaining rights are important to you.

Sample Letter for Campaign

Subject: Respect UPENN Workers Freedom to Form a Union!

Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,

I am writing to you as the chairman of the Board of Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania to urge you to cease the trustees' policy of legal obstructionism that has prevented the counting of UPENN graduate employees' union election ballots for nearly a year.

I fully support the principle that all workers, including members of Graduate Employees Together at the University of Pennsylvania/American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO, are entitled to freedom of association at work, and I support the right of UPENN graduate employees to form a union and bargain collectively in an environment free of interference, intimidation, reprisals or delay. Collective bargaining is good for workers and good for the economy.

The Board of Trustees' actions have prevented the ballots from the February 26-27, 2003, union election conducted by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) from being counted, denying the graduate employees the right to know the results. This is unacceptable.

I call on you, Mr. Riepe, to drop the trustees' appeal of the NLRB's ruling, allow the votes cast in the February 2003 election to be counted and, if the workers voted to form their union, to bargain in good faith and reach a fair agreement with GET-UP/AFT.

Sincerely,

Campaign Launched:
February 20, 2004


Background Information

The American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO, represents more than 150,000 higher education professionals in the United States, including full-time faculty, part-time faculty, graduate employees and academic professionals in more than 230 local unions. AFT has been bargaining successfully on behalf of graduate employees for more than 30 years. But serious injustice is occurring at the University of Pennsylvania. Workers trying to form a union with AFT's affiliate, Graduate Employees Together-University of Pennsylvania (GET-UP), have been playing by the rules for two and a half years. But UPENN's high-price lawyers have used delaying tactics to block their union election votes from being counted-for nearly a year.

 

James S. Riepe, chairman of UPENN's Board of Trustees, is among those with primary responsibility for the current injustice and the capacity to bring it to successful resolution.
 
THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
- Has an $8 billion, tax-exempt physical plant
- Has a $3.4 billion endowment (FY02)
- Has an operating budget of $3.3 billion (FY02)
- Receives $441 million in taxpayer funds (FY02)
- Pays its president $808,000 plus a free mansion
 
UPENN's GRADUATE EMPLOYEES
- Staff 70 percent of the contact hours in the large undergraduate lecture and lab courses
- Receive an average salary of $15,000 per year
- Have a two-in-five chance of not receiving employer-paid health insurance
- Pay $2,555 for health insurance for one dependent
- Often meet their students in coffee shops because they lack office space
- Have seen their rents double since 1999
 
They formed a union, GET-UP/AFT, AFL-CIO. A majority of UPENN's graduate employees sign authorization cards for union representation in December 2001. A majority signed a public petition declaring their intention to vote for union representation in February 2003. And they won a union representation election by 62 percent to 38 percent on February 26-27, 2003, according to independent exit surveys.

 

But their ballots were impounded because of the administration's legal maneuvers. These workers have waited almost a year to have their votes counted.
 
To learn more, visit http://getuponline.org.