Penn State graduate students rally for union election as university pushes back
A large group of Penn State graduate students who want to unionize held a rally Tuesday at Old Main to call on the university’s administration to have a quick union election process this semester.
The Coalition of Graduate Employees at Penn State is made up of graduate student teaching and research assistants from across Penn State — University Park and commonwealth campuses — and is in the process of building a graduate worker union. The unionization efforts go back years, but last spring semester the CGE began officially signing authorization cards to form a union, the first step toward a union election, its website states.
More than 450 students participated in the hourlong rally in front of Old Main, where the university president’s office is located, and seven speakers touched on the importance of unionizing. At least four police officers stood off in the near distance.
Graduate workers are excited about forming a union, Jessica Rafalko, a fifth year in the graduate program in English at Penn State, said in a recent phone interview with the Centre Daily Times. There are an estimated 5,000 graduate workers in the unit and 3,000 of them signed cards, she said.
They filed the union authorization cards with the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board, the entity that oversees public employees in Pennsylvania, and the next step is having an election. But Penn State has said research assistants are not workers, Amy Wrobleski, a staff member with the United Auto Workers — the union that CGE is affiliated with — said in a phone interview. It will likely go through a hearing process to decide who is a worker in the unit and who is not. That issue has already been litigated during a previous unionization attempt, she said.
“There was a (grad worker) unionization attempt back in 2017-2018. Because of that, the unit has actually already been litigated, and it determined that both TAs, RAs and trainees are all workers. However, now the university is saying that RAs and trainees are not workers,” Wrobleski said.
In a written statement, the university said they deeply value the work graduate students do for Penn State’s mission. Their dedication to teaching, research and service strengthens the university, the university said.
But they consider all graduate students as students first.
“We consider all graduate students first and foremost as students pursuing advanced degrees at Penn State. Research assistants (RAs), in particular, are primarily engaged in scholarly activities as part of their advanced degree requirements,” Penn State’s statement reads. “Activities such as designing and executing their own research, assisting faculty, developing methodologies, working with disciplinary and interdisciplinary research teams and growing and demonstrating mastery and independence in their field are vital to RAs earning their advanced degrees and for academic and professional development.”
It continues: “For these reasons, the University is opposing the petition on the basis that research assistants and trainees are not employees under the meaning of the Public Employee Relations Act.”
The rally was to bring everyone together and show that RAs and trainees are workers and do work that benefits Penn State, and that it is in everyone’s best interest to have an election this semester without any delays.
Rafalko has held multiple titles during her time at Penn State, including teaching assistant and research assistant, under different supervisors.
“To suggest that being a teaching assistant makes you a worker and being a research assistant somehow excludes you from being a worker, just in my own personal experience, doesn’t ring true,” Rafalko said. “Regardless of what your job title is, you’re doing work for the university, you are a worker. You should have as much of a voice in a union and as much of a voice in the vote as anyone else.”
Grady Iliff, a graduate research assistant in mechanical engineering, agreed and during the rally said Penn State’s claim goes against their lived experiences, legal precedent and integrity.
“Where they fall short, we actually step up and uphold the Penn State values that they like to wave about. Those values include integrity, believe it or not, respect, responsibility, discovery, excellence and community, but those values have been systematically violated over the last few months as we fight for our right to unionize here at Penn State,” he said. “The claim that research assistants are not employees is an intentionally obstructive claim. They are trying to delay our election later than this semester, and that’s a severe lack of integrity.”
The union’s website states their goals include increasing pay, protecting international student workers’ rights, strengthening job security, and ensuring equitable working and living conditions. But Rafalko said they’re still having discussions about what that could look like and hearing from graduate workers about their concerns, as things vary from different departments and labs.
Issues that have consistently come up surround personal, medical or family leave, she said.
Beyond those top-line issues of pay or benefits, the reason they want to unionize is because they care about the community. Graduate workers are typically here for between two and six years, so State College is their home.
“We care about this university. We care about our students, we care about our fellow coworkers. … We want to make Penn State a better place for everybody, and that’s what this movement is really born of. It’s because we care so much about our workplace and about each other in this community that we’re just trying to make things better,” Rafalko said.
Avanti Vairagkar, an international student in the molecular, cellular and integrative biosciences program, works as a research assistant. At the rally she said forming a union is “absolutely important” so they have a platform to democratically advocate for things like pay increases and protection.
“Given the political environment, there are rising concerns and international students are in a precarious situation, especially when it comes to visa and immigration. Unions have the power to effect actual change at the government level. Unions give international students a platform to advocate for the interests, not only in their workplace, but also in their adopted communities, locally and nationally,” she said.
She went on to say she feels lucky to be at Penn State, to have nice colleagues, to chose her own projects, to have a good work-life balance and to receive support with some mental health challenges. Those things can be uncommon among other graduate students across Penn State.
“I shouldn’t have to feel lucky to be treated right. One shouldn’t have to feel lucky to be in a supportive environment with a healthy work life balance. I say it should be a norm. … A union is for everyone, and a union will help protect international students equally. There shouldn’t be any more delay in holding an election,” she said.
Jon Light, president of Teamsters Local 8, a union of technical service employees at Penn State, said during the rally that he’s been through a lot of fights and turmoil with the university during his time as president. He encouraged the students to not give up and keep fighting.
The Penn State Faculty Alliance is also forming a union, it publicly announced last week, likely for all Penn State faculty, including tenure-line and non-tenure line, and both full and part-time, across all campuses. It will be affiliated with SEIU Local 668, a social service employees union that represents 20,000 workers in Pennsylvania.
This story was originally published March 4, 2025 at 4:44 PM.
