In October of 2025, after years of organizing, Graduate Assistants at Penn State voted overwhelmingly to form our union, Coalition of Graduate Employees – UAW, 1882 Yes to 98 No.

In December, Penn State announced that instead of respecting the overwhelming democratic decision of graduate workers who voted by a 90% margin to form a union, they are appealing the decision that was made to include Research Assistants in our union, reiterating their argument that research assistants are not workers and attempting to prevent thousands of workers from having the ability to negotiate for better pay and working conditions. 

Grad workers are calling on Penn State to drop all legal challenges to the collective bargaining rights of Research Assistants so that we can begin bargaining in good faith for a fair contract for all Research Assistants, Teaching Assistants, and Administrative Support Assistants. We plan to continue to make our voices heard to push Penn State to respect our vote. This includes organizing with our coworkers in every college and department to continue to demonstrate mass support for our union as well as continuing to rally support from our communities, elected officials, and the larger movement of unionized workers nationwide.

Add your name to show your support. Sign the open letter!

We made our voices heard and voted to form our union by an overwhelming margin

In October of 2025, we voted 90% in favor of forming a union with UAW. But instead of respecting our democratic choice and legal right to collective bargaining, Penn State has chosen to challenge the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board (PLRB) Hearing Examiner’s decision that Research Assistants are employees under the law and have the right to be included in our union. This disrespects the long hours we work and valuable contributions we make to Penn State. If successful, the university administration’s legal challenge would deny basic employment rights to thousands of workers. Penn State grad workers petitioned to form the same bargaining unit that the PLRB previously deemed appropriate, and there is ample precedent both in Pennsylvania and across dozens of other public and private US universities including graduate student research assistants in collective bargaining.

Penn State is continuing to oppose including RAs rather than respecting the democratic will of workers.

We’re signing on to an open letter calling on Penn State to respect our vote and drop the appeal.:

Written Op-Eds about our work as researchers:

Raised this issue to admin at the Penn State Research Town Hall:

Gathered incredible support from Elected Officials:

An organized voice will allow us to join the national movement fighting to protect higher education and science funding

The Trump administration’s funding cuts are an unprecedented attack on research and higher education in the United States, and could have serious and long-lasting negative impacts on our work. By unionizing with the UAW we are joining with tens of thousands of other higher education workers across the country who are fighting against cuts to public research funding through direct action and political organizing. These efforts have already had a major impact. In part because of actions taken by UAW members and other unionized workers, Congress has largely rejected proposed cuts to federal research agencies such as the NIH, NSF, DOE, and USDA. The UAW has also been a plaintiff on multiple lawsuits that have resulted in the reversal of NIH grant cancellations and restoration of federal funding to Harvard University. UAW members have also been advocating for increased funding for scientific research at the state level. Instead of joining us in this fight to defend research funding, Penn State is spending resources fighting the democratic will of workers.