February 17, 2026
Thom Carroll/For PhillyVoice
Graduate student workers at the University of Pennsylvania and school officials reached a tentative agreement early Tuesday morning after almost two years of negotiations.
Graduate student workers at the University of Pennsylvania and representatives from the school have reached a tentative contract agreement to avert a possible strike.
The two-year deal was struck early Tuesday morning, hours before workers said they would walk off the job. Graduate Employees Together-University of Pennsylvania, a division of the United Auto Workers, said the Penn officials made "key, last-minute concessions" in negotiations, which began in the summer of 2024. The union represents about 3,400 teaching assistants and researchers from over 100 departments.
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If ratified, Penn would establish a minimum hourly wage of $25 and a 3% raise would go into effect on July 1, 2027. Doctoral students working with a stipend would get raises of up to 24%, and the floor for stipends would go up from $40,608 to $49,000 as of April 1.
The contract also includes written protections against discrimination and harassment, improved vision and dental benefits, expanded benefits for parents and support for international student workers. It codifies accessibility improvements and workplace protections as well, according to a statement from GETUP-UAW.
"We won a historic contract that enshrines gains for grad workers," Clara Abbott, a bargaining committee member and Ph.D. candidate, said in a statement. "We won because thousands of graduate workers bravely stood together over the past several years: we had difficult conversations with our coworkers, collected petition signatures, packed the bargaining room, organized rallies, and ultimately prepared to withhold our labor and go to the picket line together to win what we deserve."
The deal now awaits ratification by GETUP-UAW's members, meaning a majority of the union needs to approve of the terms. A date for the vote has not yet been released.
"Penn has a long-standing commitment to its graduate students and value their contributions to Penn's important missions," a spokesperson for Penn said in an email. "We are grateful to all the members of the Penn community who helped us achieve this tentative agreement."
Graduate students at Penn voted to unionize in a two-day election in May 2024. After 18 months of organizing, 92% of members voted in favor of authorize a strike if a deal could not be reached by Tuesday.
Throughout negotiations, graduate workers claimed Penn proposed wages that were thousands of dollars below the cost of living in the city and less than other institutions, which prompted the strike deadline.
The contract follows a similar trend among other Philadelphia universities. In 2023, graduate student workers at Temple approved a contract following a six-week strike. Last March, faculty and staff at the Community College of Philadelphia narrowly avoided a strike in its contract negotiations.
