Ahead of a strike deadline on Tuesday, Penn and its graduate student union have come to tentative agreements on 26 proposals, including three this month.
Since October 2024, the University and Graduate Employees Together — University of Pennsylvania have met 45 times, bargaining on provisions over compensation, international student security, and workplace protections. In November 2025, graduate workers voted to authorize a strike if deemed necessary by the union.
In the past month, the two parties reached tentative agreements on the issues of childcare, parental and medical leave, and support for international and immigrant workers. The union and the University will meet on Monday for the final bargaining session before the strike deadline.
“Penn has put forth a generous, comprehensive proposal in response to the Union’s demands,” a Penn spokesperson wrote to the DP. “We believe that an agreement can be reached that will support our graduate students and Penn’s ongoing academic mission.”
According to the University’s Comprehensive Economic Package — as of Feb. 13 — the administration has offered graduate student workers $115,506 in total annual compensation and an economic package that marks a “20% increase in the University’s overall annual costs per graduate student.”
According to the same report, the University offered workers a $46,500 minimum stipend and a $22 minimum hourly wage. In an Instagram post, GET-UP responded that they were seeking a $52,000 stipend and $32 minimum wage.
On Feb. 5, bargaining achieved a “tentative agreement on childcare,” expanding access for graduate student workers to guaranteed childcare grants. According to the University’s package, they had offered $2,500 for one child and $1,250 for each additional child, as well as up to $5,000 per semester for stipended graduate workers.
The Feb. 9 and Feb. 11 bargaining sessions led to a tentative agreement on leaves, securing graduate student workers six and eight weeks of paid medical and parental leave, respectively.
The new agreement also guaranteed “protected sick-time flexibility and other rights to unpaid leaves of absence.”
In that same set of meetings, both parties reached a tentative agreement on support for international and immigrant workers. According to the contact, the University would create an “annual $50,000 fund” covering expenses to “extend or reinstate visas” for graduate workers.
The agreement also granted graduate workers the ability to request time off for “issues related to immigration” and ensured Penn will make the “best efforts” to re-employ any international graduate worker whose “immigration status is disrupted for any reason.”
Several key issues remain unresolved — including wage, healthcare coverage, and transit and parking stipends — ahead of Monday’s bargaining session.
“Penn admin has described their current compensation offer as ‘generous,’ but the reality is that it barely catches up with what its peer institutions are already paying,” GET-UP’s most recent social media post read. “And it falls behind what all of these institutions will be paying their graduate workers in the coming academic year.”
According to GET-UP’s website, a strike would mean that graduate workers with teaching and research positions would suspend their work responsibilities — including grading, leading recitations, holding office hours, and conducting certain research activities.
“The University is committed to supporting all of its students and employees and maintaining academic rigor,” a University spokesperson wrote to the DP. “In the event of a work stoppage, classes, research, and other academic activities will continue.”
On Sunday, a GET-UP representative spoke at an event by the Philadelphia branch of the Democratic Socialists of America. The event Feb. 15 — which featured Pennsylvania state Rep. Rick Krajewski (D-188) and two Penn workers — discussed the ongoing negotiations.
“We are fighting for livable wages that keeps up with the rising cost of living in Philadelphia, dependent healthcare for student workers, a strong union,” Guru Shabadi — a bargaining committee member and second-year Penn Ph.D candidate — said at the event. “We have a final round of bargaining tomorrow, and if Penn still refuses to reach an agreement and give us a fair contract, we will be on the picket lines around Penn campus.”
Staff reporter Luke Petersen covers national politics and can be reached at petersen@thedp.com. At Penn, he studies philosophy, politics, and economics. Follow him on X @LukePetersen06.
Staff reporter Cathy Sui covers federal policy and can be reached at sui@thedp.com. At Penn, she studies finance and statistics.