Penn\u2019s graduate student union asked a federal court on Monday to dismiss a University filing that seeks a ruling on whether certain doctoral students are eligible for union representation.<\/p>\n
The motion is the latest in a months-long dispute over whether first- and second-year students in Penn\u2019s Biomedical Graduate Studies program should be considered employees under federal labor law. Graduate Employees Together \u2014 University of Pennsylvania argued<\/a> on Oct. 19 that a federal court lacks the jurisdiction to answer that question.<\/p>\n In August, Penn filed<\/a> for a declaratory judgment asking the court to decide whether those students are employees represented by the bargaining unit and whether GET-UP can pursue arbitration over the issue.<\/p>\n A request for comment was left with a University spokesperson.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe filed a motion to dismiss because we believe the lawsuit filed by Penn is an attempt to circumvent our agreed-upon grievance and arbitration process,\u201d a GET-UP spokesperson wrote in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n Get the DP delivered straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n Sign Up<\/a><\/p>\n The union\u2019s members were seeking to enforce their collective bargaining agreement with the University by utilizing an \u201cagreed-upon process for resolving any disagreements,\u201d the spokesperson added.<\/p>\n The agreement \u2014 ratified<\/a> in February as GET-UP\u2019s first contract \u2014 states that educational fellowship recipients who do not provide teaching or research services or who are in lab rotations and first- and second-year students in the BGS program are excluded from the union\u2019s representation.<\/p>\n According to the court filing, the union filed a grievance in April that the exclusion of educational fellowship recipients violates its contract. In July, after initial negotiations fell through, a GET-UP representative sent an arbitration request to the American Arbitration Association \u2014 prompting Penn to take legal action.<\/p>\n A University spokesperson wrote at the time that Penn \u201cmaintains its firm position\u201d that first- and second-year BGS students are \u201cengaged in academic activities as they complete the foundational academic milestones of their doctoral program.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThese are not bargaining unit activities,\u201d the spokesperson stated. \u201cThis distinction is important because it preserves students\u2019 right to focus on their academic progress during this critical period, as well as the University\u2019s right to make decisions in support of that academic progress.\u201d<\/p>\n Citing a \u201cwell-established federal labor policy favoring arbitration,\u201d GET-UP argued on Monday that the court lacks \u201csubject matter jurisdiction over this controversy\u201d because both Penn and the union had agreed to arbitrate all disputes under the contract.<\/p>\n The dispute was \u201cclearly\u201d and \u201cunambiguously\u201d made over the interpretation of the agreement. As a result, GET-UP argued, it must be resolved through arbitration, not litigation.<\/p>\n In its August filing, Penn argued that GET-UP\u2019s demand for arbitration was \u201cpredicated on the presumption\u201d that first- and second-year BGS students were \u201cemployees\u201d under the National Labor Relations Act and therefore belong in the contracted bargaining unit \u2014 an interpretation the University called inconsistent with federal labor law.<\/p>\n Last month, a federal appeals court found that a similar dispute \u2014 between Harvard\u2019s graduate student union and the university, fell within the NLRB\u2019s jurisdiction and could be decided through arbitration.<\/p>\n \u201cThe facts in Harvard College closely parallel the facts in this case,\u201d GET-UP\u2019s wrote in its motion to dismiss.<\/p>\n The status of educational fellowship recipients has long been a point of contention between GET-UP and the University.<\/p>\n Both parties attended<\/a> a November 2023 NLRB hearing in hopes of settling the matter, which delayed GET-UP\u2019s unionization election. The union argued that many educational fellowship recipients arrived with prior research experience and meaningfully contributed to research, making them eligible for the bargaining unit. Penn contended that graduate students in lab rotations are engaged solely in training.<\/p>\n In March 2024, the NLRB ruled<\/a> that educational fellowship recipients should be excluded from voting in the unionization election. GET-UP won an appeal<\/a> the following month, which allowed the recipients to vote but left their status in the union\u2019s bargaining unit up for future consideration.<\/p>\n After the tentative agreement was reached in February, a University spokesperson wrote that the bargaining unit\u2019s scope \u201cwas one of the many issues the University and GETUP-UAW resolved through negotiations.\u201d At the time, GET-UP members said the issue remained disputed and that the union would continue advocating for the inclusion of \u201call workers.\u201d<\/p>\n GET-UP\u2019s contract with Penn runs through June 1, 2028. The two parties must begin renewal negotiations no later than 60 days before expiration.<\/p>\n Isha Chitirala is a News Editor at The Daily Pennsylvanian and can be reached at chitirala@thedp.com<\/a>. At Penn, she studies economics and political science. Follow her on X @IshaChitirala<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Penn\u2019s graduate student union asked a federal court on Monday to dismiss a University filing that seeks a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310499,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70],"class_list":["post-310498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}