Chris Deluzio
My hometown of Pittsburgh is a union town through and through. But the struggles that brought the labor movement to where it is today were uniformly met with resistance, and that's still happening. The forces trying to stymie our organizing efforts today may not be willing to deploy violence and call in the Pinkertons as they did in Homestead in 1892, but make no mistake, the University is fighting hard against a union for faculty.
The reason is no mystery. Unionized workers earn more than non-union workers and have better benefits, more say over their working conditions, and better protection from firings and other harassment. In academic settings, in particular, organized faculty can demand more transparency, equity, job security, and democracy in the workplace. Without collective bargaining, the University wields disproportionate power over its employees—especially adjunct and contingent faculty and those without the guarantees of tenure, an ever-increasing share of Pitt faculty.
The only thing that can correct this power imbalance is a union, one that will allow faculty of all ranks to achieve much together through collective action and solidarity. Let's show the University that Pittsburgh is still a union town.
--Chris Deluzio, School of Law
The reason is no mystery. Unionized workers earn more than non-union workers and have better benefits, more say over their working conditions, and better protection from firings and other harassment. In academic settings, in particular, organized faculty can demand more transparency, equity, job security, and democracy in the workplace. Without collective bargaining, the University wields disproportionate power over its employees—especially adjunct and contingent faculty and those without the guarantees of tenure, an ever-increasing share of Pitt faculty.
The only thing that can correct this power imbalance is a union, one that will allow faculty of all ranks to achieve much together through collective action and solidarity. Let's show the University that Pittsburgh is still a union town.
--Chris Deluzio, School of Law
