get up

Graduate Employees Together – University of Pennsylvania (GET-UP) is a group of graduate students at the University of Pennsylvania that is trying to become recognized as a union. The group (GET-UP 1.0), first formed in the spring of 2001, and affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). In 2004, according to exit polling by The Daily Pennsylvanian, the limited set of University of Pennsylvania graduate student employees included in the bargaining unit voted for unionization; however, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), before the votes were counted, decided that graduate students in private universities are not employees, while graduate students in public universities may be employees. The group began to re-form in 2016 (GET-UP Today), and re-affiliated with AFT in October 2016. On March 2, 2017 the group once again decided to go public with their unionization campaign. The group has not been recognized by the University as a union for the purposes of collective bargaining.
In April of 2023, GET-UP went public with a new organizing drive, this time affiliated with the United Auto Workers. The new drive was inaugurated by an announcement that more than 1,900 doctoral, masters, and undegraduate students had signed union authorization cards. A few days later several hundred workers rallied outside of Van Pelt Library calling for improved working conditions. This organizing drive follows unionization campaigns for Penn medical residents with the Service Employees International Union and resident assistants with the Office and Professional Employees International Union.

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