Let's set the record straight . . .

Somebody didn't do their homework!

Pitt's Administration has set up an 'informational' website that purports to present the facts about our faculty's unionization drive and about unions in general. The problem is that some of its critical claims are factually inaccurate.
           
The Administration says that if faculty votes to unionize, everyone who teaches at Pitt will be required to join. That’s false. In 1947, Congress passed the Taft-Hartley Act banning the "closed shop," and subsequent interpretations of that Act by the Supreme Court effectively banned the “union shop” as well, eliminating compulsory union membership. Further, the recent Janus decision bars public-sector unions from charging non-members a fee for the services they provide, even when they benefit from those services. A faculty union will protect the rights of all faculty—members and non-members alike​. 

• The Administration portrays the union drive as being initiated by the USW—strategically referred to as "United Steelworkers"—at the expense of naïve and uninformed faculty. That's not just wrong, it's insulting to professors. Pitt faculty have been fighting for a union since the 1970s. The current drive began in 2013, when members of our organizing committee met with representatives from several unions. We chose the USW because of its democratic ethos, deep roots in the Pittsburgh region, and its success organizing academic workers at institutions ranging from Point Park and Robert Morris to the University of Toronto (if you want to know about the USW local there, check it out here). The USW provides us with the infrastructure, organizers, and institutionalized knowledge we need to bring our message to our colleagues and the university community at large. Throughout the organizing campaign, however, all the crucial decisions about the effort have been made democratically by a committee of faculty. That will continue when we form a union. A faculty union is faculty, working together to defend its rights and improve its working conditions, along with the learning conditions of students.

 

• The Administration claims to know what's best for faculty. That's hard to believe when it can't even tell the truth about the union drive. It's hired a firm whose lawyers bill as much as $500 per hour (vs about $20.83-per-hour for the average lecturer at Pitt), and boasts "we know how to help clients maintain a union-free environment." That firm also specializes in defending clients against lawsuits for discrimination and other civil rights violations. Hard to believe that Pitt paid someone else so much to do its homework. . .  and they still got the answers wrong.

 
If you want to know more about what the Administration missed, check out the answers to some common questions here. Or, send us an email at [email protected]. We’re happy to talk in person about how a union can improve your pay and benefits, defend your job security, and give you a greater voice in the governance of the University—and why only a union will do those things.