Last Updated: January 29, 2026
Overview of negotiations
On Monday, November 3, the Union announced its intention to take a strike authorization vote, which could result in a work stoppage. Subsequently, the Union announced that its membership had voted to authorize a strike, which did not necessarily mean that the Union would call or implement a strike. However, on January 13, 2026, the Union announced that it would strike on February 17, 2026, if a contract is not reached by that date.
The University has been engaged in good faith negotiations with the Union since October 2024, and good progress has been made toward a collective bargaining agreement fair to Penn and the Union, completing 42 bargaining sessions and reaching 23 tentative agreements. Tentative agreements include: an anti-discrimination and harassment provision, a grievance and arbitration process for graduate worker disputes, a provision on graduate worker appointments, participation in the University’s Supplemental Retirement Annuity (SRA), and vacation time.
The University has also proposed providing vision and dental insurance for PhD students, on top of an already-provided robust student health insurance plan.
Material Issues Impeding an Agreement Between Penn and the Union
- Management and academic rights: The University has advanced a standard proposal that expressly affirms the University’s continuing authority to determine and administer academic programs and classes, as well as to establish and uphold requirements for graduate education. This authority is fundamental to ensuring that faculty maintain control over academic standards and rigor.
- The Union has not agreed.
- Stipends: The Union has stated publicly that the University has not made a fair offer concerning stipends; however:
- The University has offered to raise the minimum stipend by more than 12% in the first year of the contract to $45,500, with an additional 2.5% increase in the second year.
- The Union originally stated that the only fair increase to the minimum stipend would be a 50% increase (to $60,000). They have since amended their proposal to increase the minimum stipend by almost 30% to $52,250 with a further 4.75% increase in the second year.
- Medical Support Funds: PhD students currently enjoy full medical coverage under the University’s robust student health plan at no cost to them during their funding years.
- The University has also proposed paying the full cost for vision coverage and 80% of the cost for dental coverage.
- Notwithstanding and in addition to full coverage for stipended PhD students under the health insurance plan, the Union has introduced a proposal for the establishment of a new fund to pay for medical expenses of non-stipended graduate workers, amounting to an additional $200,000 a year.
- The Union also proposed that the University pay $100,000 a year into a dependent support fund and pay 65% of the cost of medical insurance for their dependents.
- Union dues: The Union is insisting on provisions that would require graduate and professional students performing instructional or research services to pay full or partial Union dues (agency fees) as a condition of performing these services, even if the teaching or research is an academic requirement and even if they didn’t vote for the Union. This means that students who do not make these payments to the union would be unable to complete academic requirements.
- The University believes that graduate students should have the option to choose to financially support the Union. Students at other universities have filed legal challenges to prevent what the Union is asking for.
- International graduate workers: The University provides significant support to all Penn’s international students, regardless of their employment status through International Student & Scholar Services.
- Additionally, the University has proposed establishing a $40,000 fund to help graduate workers with F-1 or J-1 visas who become out of status while resident in the United States through no fault of their own.
- In response, the Union is insisting that the fund be $200,000 and that the fund be available to defray the costs incurred by newly admitted graduate students when they apply for their initial J-1 or F-1 visa to come to Penn. This is despite the fact that these are student visas – not work visas – and that no incoming student is a member of the bargaining unit at the time they apply for these visas. This proposal goes significantly beyond the bounds of what should be in a collective bargaining agreement.
- Overreach on academic issues: The Union has repeatedly sought to bargain over purely academic issues (e.g. grieving assigned grades for their course work, having a Union representative attend meetings with their supervisor/mentor, and extending the number of years of guaranteed funding to obtain a degree), insisting on addressing these in the collective bargaining agreement.
- The Union’s purview extends only to work-related matters, and not academic ones.
- By repeatedly presenting proposals that encroach on academic matters, the Union has significantly slowed down the bargaining process.