Today marks the first of a two-day strike being staged by
GET-UP (Graduate Employees Together - University of Pennsylvania) on the Penn campus in Philadelphia. [
www.getuponline.org ]
One year ago the National Labor Relations Board sponsored a vote by the adhoc group to form a union on the Penn campus. We still don't know how that vote came out, because the University tied up the count with a lawsuit.
After a full year of fruitless negotiations with the administration (and the University president being shown the door in the next few months), 83% of GET-UP's membership voted to peacefully strike in protest of the University's tactics.
Yesterday afternoon, the American Federation of Teachers filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board against the University in response to an email sent around to faculty and staff threatening to withold pay and discipline any who "do not report to work because of strike-related conditions".
many other members of the Penn community -- including some legal scholars... believe that the content of the e-mail is in fact a violation of the National Labor Relations Act.
The act guarantees faculty and staff the right to "'assist labor organizations' and to engage in 'concerted activities for mutual aid and protection,'" according to Law Professor Howard Lesnick.
Lesnick said the act also prohibits "employer actions that 'restrain or coerce employees.'" He cited a statement from the e-mail which he described as "explicitly warn[ing] employees not to refrain from work" as a possible example of an illegal action.
Penn Law professor Clyde Summers, who has been referred to as "Mr. Labor Law," said that he believes that what the University did was "flat out illegal."
Summers called the University's stance "an unfair labor practice."
"Any employee who wants to observe the strike is legally protected -- they cannot be disciplined or penalized for observing the strike," he said.