Penn's resident advisors union rallies, alleges 'bad faith' bargaining after months of negotiations (2024)

United RAs at Penn, a union representing Penn’s nearly 220 resident advisors and graduate resident advisors, reported “bad faith” bargaining with the University on Thursday after hosting a rally Wednesday evening.

Several RAs, all of whom are members of the union, told The Daily Pennsylvanian that Penn cut the final scheduled day of negotiations of the semester short and refused to accept the group’s multiple counterproposals. Penn’s RAs and GRAs originally voted to unionize by an overwhelming majority in September 2023. The group has been negotiating since December, and they hope to end bargaining this semester with a contract proposal in place.

"Penn continues to meet and bargain in good faith and is progressing toward an agreement," a University spokesperson wrote in a statement to the DP.

“We walked into the meeting after having a rally last night with a counterproposal on the table,” College senior and RA Conor Emery told the DP. “We were able to clarify most of our issues within the first hour or two and it came down to just the monetary figure for our cash compensation. They were just consistently low-balling.”

Currently, Penn RAs and GRAs are paid $600 a year, according to remarks from 2016 Graduate School of Education graduate and organizer with the Office of Professional Employees International Union Local 153 Scott Williams at the rally on Wednesday.

“Minimum wage laws do not exist for student workers,” he said. “That means these workers are not entitled to $7.25 an hour.”

According to Emery, United RAs at Penn is seeking $6,000 stipends for its workers, and he said the RAs told University negotiators that “we’re not accepting under $5,000.” He added that the University refused to go above a $1,000 per year offer.

Emery told the DP that during Thursday’s bargaining session, which was abruptly cut short, one of the members of the negotiating group had to leave due to a family emergency.

“Even after that … [Robert Shipman], who claimed that he’s the one in control of whether we get the compensation done, still could have stayed, but he decided not to,” Emery said.

Shipman had not responded to a request for comment by the time of publication.

“During negotiations we showed Penn how … around $5,000 per academic year lines roughly up with Pennsylvania minimum wage [and is] extremely low,” Emery said. “They thought that just didn’t matter at all. They seem to just want to lowball us as much as possible.”

Although the sudden downturn in negotiations is a setback, members of United RAs at Penn are still focused on gaining a fair contract.

Multiple organizers told the DP that members of the union will “keep fighting to get what we know we’re worth,” even if that means continued action into the summer and next school year.

“We need to see them move on the basics of compensation, which is really the number one issue for our members,” Williams told the DP.

The RA union hosted a rally on May 8 as it aimed to end bargaining sessions for the semester with a new contract in place.

The rally drew about 15 attendees outside 3401 Walnut Street, where negotiations between union representatives and the University have been taking place. The group circled outside the building for around twenty minutes, chanting “What’s disgusting? Union busting. What’s outrageous? Union wages” and “Get up, get down, Philly is a union town.”

“We put in a lot of hard work. We do a lot for the school,” Avinash Goss, a candidate for a master’s in bioethics at the Perelman School of Medicine, told the DP at the rally. “I think we're expecting some significant compensation. Definitely an increase from what we're currently getting.”

Seventh-year South Asian Studies Ph.D. candidate Shaashi Ahlawat told the rally’s attendees that “we need the strength right now … to put pressure on the University to get this contract done.”

Attendees at the rally included members of United RAs at Penn, Graduate Employees Together – University of Pennsylvania,who officially voted to unionize earlier this month, and an organizer from the Philadelphia Labor Council AFL-CIO.

In March, United RAs at Penn filed a surface bargaining complaint against the University, citing delays and disrespect from the negotiating team. The petition called on Penn to respond to RA demands, which include fair compensation — with room, a meal plan, and a stipend that does not impact their financial aid — and "good faith bargaining" to complete negotiations by May 14.