Who is responsible for bargaining if a union were formed? How is PSEA involved?
Coalition of Graduate Employees:
Penn State graduate assistants will bargain the contract.
Graduate assistants vote to elect the bargaining committee of graduate assistants. Before bargaining begins, we will collect bargaining surveys from graduate employees. These surveys inform the bargaining committee of what the bargaining unit considers to be a priority for the union contract’s contents, including which aspects of graduate assistant working conditions should be maintained and which should be changed or improved. If bargaining surveys indicate that graduate assistants consider it a priority to focus on, for example, retirement benefits or transportation/parking options rather than health insurance, then the bargaining team’s priorities will shift accordingly.
With these goals, the bargaining committee will meet with University representatives to document existing working conditions and benefits, and negotiate them into a tentative agreement. Union members vote whether to approve the tentative agreement. If approved by voters and the University, it becomes the first union contract. If rejected, the bargaining committee returns to negotiations.
Throughout the bargaining process, the Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA) will provide legal and logistical support to our bargaining team, utilized at the discretion of our union members.
Graduate School:
The University and the union would each have a bargaining team. Those teams would be responsible for meeting and bargaining in good faith over terms and conditions. The University and union would independently select membership of their respective bargaining teams. University bargaining teams function under the authority of University executives and are typically comprised of Penn State administrators, Labor and Employee Relations staff, and legal counsel.
What topics can/cannot be negotiated by a union?
Coalition of Graduate Employees:
Wages, terms and conditions of employment, and other workplace-related issues would be subject to negotiation; academic-related issues, such as degree requirements and exam policies, would not. Some examples of negotiable topics include but are not limited to:
- Stipends: your union can negotiate stipend increases so that all graduate assistants are fairly compensated for their work and no graduate assistant is paid less than a living wage.
- Benefits: your union can negotiate benefits, including tuition waivers, health insurance, retirement contributions, and leave policies, among other things; all changes to these benefits must be negotiated with graduate assistants, rather than set unilaterally by the university. This means that, for example, healthcare benefits would be protected from year to year, without the possibility of sudden changes.
- Working conditions: your union can establish better, safer working conditions for graduate assistants, guarantees of nondiscrimination, protections from sexual harassment, fair complaint procedures, and ensure that graduate assistants cannot be forced to work more hours than their contract requires — although graduate assistants are free to work more hours than required if they choose to do so.
The collective bargaining agreement at Temple University, whose graduate assistants unionized in 2000, provides some examples of what issues a graduate assistant union in Pennsylvania has bargained. The Temple University Graduate Students’ Association (TUGSA) 2014–2018 contract contains language that guarantees nondiscrimination from both parties, establishes grievance and arbitration procedures, guarantees office space/supplies/equipment, guarantees unpaid and paid leave policies, guarantees health insurance benefits, guarantees minimum stipends and annual raises, guarantees full tuition remission, and guarantees a discount at the University bookstore.
For summaries of contract gains made by other graduate unions, see the recent UConn Graduate Employee Contract, or Oregon State University’s comparison of contract gains over time, or GWC-UAW’s summary of graduate assistant contracts.
Graduate School:
We do not know for sure. There is no precedent from the Pennsylvania courts or labor board for deciding what are “terms and conditions of employment” for graduate students whose teaching and research are part of their academic training. We believe that stipends and benefits could be subject to bargaining.
The following is a list of some of the things that Penn State believes would not be subject to negotiations between a union and Penn State: (1) who is to be appointed to an assistantship or removed from an assistantship; (2) academic requirements for graduate students; (3) academic judgments by faculty and administrators; (4) budgeting and allocation of funds; (5) number and distribution of graduate student assistants; (6) selection and retention of faculty and supervisory personnel; and (7) the number of graduate student assistant positions at any specific funding level. Ultimately, this may be up to the PLRB and/or the courts.
How could unionization affect my stipend?
Coalition of Graduate Employees:
Without a union contract, there are no guarantees: for example, graduate assistants may be paid less than a living wage, and every year, it’s unclear what, if any, raise we will be given, or if the raises we are given will break even relative to inflation. In 2009, Penn State graduate assistants did not receive any stipend increase at all. In 2011, stipends were raised by 0.5%.
A union contract will ensure that all graduate assistants are fairly compensated for the work they do. Union contracts typically establish an initial overall raise at the start of the contract, and guarantee additional annual raises throughout the duration of the contract.
Many graduate assistants have expressed concern that stipends in their department will be reduced so that the minimum stipend in other departments can be raised. This is an understandable topic of concern. Fortunately, we have found no evidence of stipends being redistributed in this manner at any institution with unionized graduate employees, even when minimum stipends were raised substantially and other benefits were greatly increased. A union contract does not give departments access to other departments’ budgets.
Every year that minimum stipends have increased at Penn State over the past two decades, there has been no decrease in higher stipend levels. In fact, higher stipend levels also were increased those same years.
Some graduate assistant collective bargaining agreements even contain language specifying that previous stipends will be maintained if they are higher level than the minimum being specified in the contract: for an example of this language, see Article XIX on p. 19 in the NYU contract. We consider it a priority for our union contract to contain such an agreement as well.
Graduate School:
If a union is chosen, stipends would be subject to collective bargaining. There is a common misconception that existing stipend levels, remuneration, and benefits serve as a starting point and can only improve with collective bargaining. Some students’ stipends could go up, some could go down and some could stay the same. It’s impossible to predict at this point. There is no guarantee that any union can obtain improvements in any economic area. The law does not require either a union or the University to agree to any contract proposal.
How could increasing minimum stipend levels impact enrollment and the number of T.A. & R.A. positions in my department? Overall?
Coalition of Graduate Employees:
The number of graduate assistantships in any given department depends on a number of factors beyond just the minimum stipend. Departments admit graduate assistants into their programs because they need teaching assistants for their undergraduate classes, and because they need research assistants to work with faculty so that papers are published, grants are awarded, and the department’s presence in the field is established. An increase in minimum graduate assistant stipend doesn’t reduce departmental need for TAs needed to teach classes, nor does it reduce departmental need for RAs to produce the quality research that Penn State is known for.
There is no evidence that increasing stipends results in decreasing graduate assistant enrollment. University-wide stipend increases have been implemented in the past few years with no demonstrable impact on the number of available assistantships.
Graduate School:
Because the funds for graduate assistant stipends come from multiple sources across the University, including college/department funding and outside research funds, increases in minimum stipends could impact each department differently. Moreover, increasing the minimum stipends across the University could reduce the number of available assistantship appointments. With a union, the University could not make changes in individual stipends and benefits to recruit and retain top students. Changes would have to be negotiated, which can be a lengthy process, and the union may be unwilling to agree, especially if the changes only benefit certain students or programs.
How do graduate students influence decisions made on healthcare with and without a union?
Coalition of Graduate Employees:
Although some graduate assistants are invited to participate in the health insurance selection process by joining the Student Insurance Administrative Council (SIAC) and Student Health Advisory Board (SHAB), these committees are advisory in nature and lack the power to make or influence decisions. Historically, the ultimate decisions about our healthcare were made prior to being proposed to these advisory boards, so it is unclear whether and how graduate assistants’ input is incorporated into final decisions.
In 2014, Penn State administrators chose to make sudden, significant changes to the graduate student health insurance plan: premiums and deductibles increased, resulting in higher costs to graduate assistants. Several of our founding members served on the healthcare committees as these changes were being proposed, and they saw how little influence their voices had in these decisions. These unilateral changes precipitated our unionization effort.
Last fall, Penn State changed its health insurance carrier from Aetna to United First Student with minimal notice, resulting in a messy month-long rollout period that left graduate assistants unable to access the health care they needed despite having already paid for their insurance. Although graduate assistants were technically covered during that period, and were told they would be reimbursed for expenses if they had to pay for costs out-of-pocket, many graduate assistants still had to go weeks without their prescriptions because they couldn’t afford the full cost of the drugs, and some who needed emergency medical attention during the rollout period have yet to be fully reimbursed.
When graduate employee benefits, such as health insurance subsidy levels, are formalized into the union contract, these benefits are protected from unilateral changes by administration. Employee benefits cannot be changed without altering the contract, and the contract cannot be altered without approval by union members through a democratic vote. Without a union contract, Penn State University remains free to make changes to health insurance and other graduate employee benefits at any time, including changes that reduce these benefits or remove them entirely.
Graduate School:
Graduate students have been part of the process for making decisions about their health insurance under the Student Health Insurance Plan (SHIP), for many years. While insurers make the decision to contract with the University, graduate students serve as representatives to two groups, the Student Insurance Advisory Board (SIAB) and the Student Insurance Administrative Council (SIAC). These groups provide input to University Health Services, who formally represents the University in its relationship to the insurer, currently First Student/United Health. As members of SIAB and SIAC, graduate student representatives work with UHS and its Student Health Insurance Office regarding the SHIP at Penn State, including the selection of insurer, plan design and mechanisms to manage costs.
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