We are DRAW-UAW
Student workers are the backbone of the world-class research conducted at Drexel University. Despite this, we still struggle to afford housing, acquire adequate healthcare, lack reasonable rights in the workplace, and face increasing uncertainty about our futures given the precarious nature of science funding and unstable regulation of visas and work authorization in recent years. Drexel student workers are organizing a union to improve our working conditions at Drexel University by increasing the power of our voice locally and nationally.
We join a growing national movement of academic workers forming unions with the UAW to improve our lives and our work. UAW student workers across the country have made a difference advocating for science research funding, fair visa and immigration policies, and better working conditions in all academic institutions. Over 120,000 academic workers have formed unions as part of the UAW, including at the University of Pennsylvania.
Academic workers in Philadelphia are already winning through unionization! Faculty and staff at the Community College of Philadelphia, resident hall assistants at Drexel, postdoctoral researchers at Penn, and graduate student workers at Temple University and University of Pennsylvania have organized, formed unions, and won or are in the process of bargaining strong contracts. Now it’s our turn! By building on their experiences, we can continue to raise standards for academic working conditions across the City of Brotherly Love.
I believe having a graduate student worker union is important to provide a living wage, equitable working conditions, and clear policies to support us on and off campus. During my time at Drexel, I have faced financial challenges, health concerns, and confusion around how to receive support as a student. Amidst rising costs of living and an ever-shifting national sociopolitical climate, we deserve to feel valued and safe in our dual roles as students and employees. I feel that a union will help improve access to better pay, leave policies, and necessary benefits like affordable transit and healthcare.
Drexel University calls itself a “world-class comprehensive R1 research institution,” but the reality for many of us is very different. We are producing high-caliber work under unsafe and unacceptable conditions—labs and offices flood from faulty plumbing, and medical-grade sterile air systems fail in the middle of experiments. I support forming a union because I believe we deserve better. I want to hold Drexel to the same high standards it expects from its students.