Frequently Asked Questions
What is a faculty union?
A faculty union is a democratic organization of faculty that uses collective action and collective bargaining to improve our workplace, our lives, and our community. When we form a union, we are the union.
Under the law, when a majority votes in favor of forming a union, the administration is required to negotiate with them in good faith as equals. By contrast, without a union, we are subordinates, and the administration can do whatever it likes. This "inequality of bargaining power" when workers haven't formed a union is why the official policy of the United States of America and of the state of Pennsylvania is "to encourage the practice and procedure of collective bargaining and to protect the exercise by workers of full freedom of association, self-organization, and designation of representatives of their own choosing, for the purpose of negotiating the terms and conditions of their employment or other mutual aid or protection, free from the interference, restraint or coercion of their employers." (See Pennsylvania Labor Relations Act §2(c) and National Labor Relations Act §1.)
Under the law, when a majority votes in favor of forming a union, the administration is required to negotiate with them in good faith as equals. By contrast, without a union, we are subordinates, and the administration can do whatever it likes. This "inequality of bargaining power" when workers haven't formed a union is why the official policy of the United States of America and of the state of Pennsylvania is "to encourage the practice and procedure of collective bargaining and to protect the exercise by workers of full freedom of association, self-organization, and designation of representatives of their own choosing, for the purpose of negotiating the terms and conditions of their employment or other mutual aid or protection, free from the interference, restraint or coercion of their employers." (See Pennsylvania Labor Relations Act §2(c) and National Labor Relations Act §1.)
Why do we need a union?
Without a union, we can only negotiate with our employer as individuals, who can be readily replaced by others who are willing to work for less. But with a union, we will be negotiating collectively, which puts us in a far better position to advance our interests, the interests of our profession, and the interests of our students and patients. The administration will be required by law to negotiate with the faculty as equals, rather than retaining the power to act unilaterally and arbitrarily. We thereby gain a real say in the conditions under which we carry out the mission of the University. See the Issues tab for some examples of topics we can address by forming a union and collectively bargaining.
What is the relationship between the Pitt Faculty Organizing Committee (PFOC), the Union of Pitt Faculty, and the United Steelworkers (USW)?
The Pitt Faculty Organizing Committee is the group of Pitt faculty who run this website and who are building the Union of Pitt Faculty. Membership in the Organizing Committee is open to all faculty who support unionization and want to pitch in. We are assisted in building the union by USW staff. If a simple majority of Pitt faculty who vote, vote in favor of forming a union, the resulting Union of Pitt Faculty will be affiliated with the USW and connected with the USW's city-wide Academic Workers Association. See below for more on the democratic structure of the USW.
Why affiliate with the United Steelworkers? Pitt isn't a steel mill!
Today’s USW members work in a wide variety of areas, including metals, manufacturing, paper, and forestry, but also health care, pharmacies and pharmaceuticals, civil service, law, finance, transportation, and education. One of the largest local unions in the USW is the staff union at the University of Toronto (USW Local 1998), so the USW is no stranger to major public research universities. The USW believes that diversity is a source of strength, and that academic workers benefit from collaboration and solidarity with other workers, both on and off campus.
The USW also has a strong tradition of union democracy, which emphasizes local autonomy. Rather than the USW being a “third party” that will storm onto campus and tell us how to do things, the USW assumes that the real experts on any workplace are the people who work there. Every USW Local Union has the autonomy to build the structures that address its unique needs. The USW International Union’s role is to support individual Locals and to facilitate coordination and collaboration between them through its officers (all of whom are directly elected by the rank and file). Because of our affiliation with the USW, our union, the Union of Pitt Faculty, will be run by the faculty for the faculty.
The USW also has a strong tradition of union democracy, which emphasizes local autonomy. Rather than the USW being a “third party” that will storm onto campus and tell us how to do things, the USW assumes that the real experts on any workplace are the people who work there. Every USW Local Union has the autonomy to build the structures that address its unique needs. The USW International Union’s role is to support individual Locals and to facilitate coordination and collaboration between them through its officers (all of whom are directly elected by the rank and file). Because of our affiliation with the USW, our union, the Union of Pitt Faculty, will be run by the faculty for the faculty.
Will organizing a faculty union pit us against our students?
No. Students care how faculty are treated, not least because of the personal connections they make with faculty during their time in college. They also understand that their instructors’ working conditions are their own learning conditions. The administration may claim that any increase in faculty pay will require a tuition increase. This is not true for at least two reasons. One reason is that the administration’s business model is built around constant tuition increases that have little to do with the University’s actual expenses. Moreover, the administration spends enormous sums of money on a wide variety of things that have nothing to do with the academic mission (administrative expansion, athletics, legacy construction projects, etc.). Increasing faculty salaries is a good and financially responsible way to re-invest in the academic mission, using funds that were siphoned away from the academic mission in the first place.
Can the union force us to go on strike?
No. A strike can only be authorized by a vote of the members, so the faculty will only go on strike if we decide collectively to do so. And even if the faculty voted to strike, it is illegal for the union to force any individual to strike. 98% of USW contracts are settled without a strike.
Is it legal for faculty to form a union?
Yes. Pitt is in the public sector. Faculty unions in the public sector fall under the Pennsylvania’s Public Employee Relations Act (PERA), which does not prohibit any group of faculty from unionizing, including tenured faculty, adjunct faculty, and faculty in grant-funded positions. The law does prohibit managerial employees, such as Deans and Vice Chancellors, from unionizing under PERA, even if they nominally have "faculty" status.
Can I be fired (or not reappointed) for supporting the union?
No. Pennsylvania’s Public Employee Relations Act protects all public employees from retaliation for union activity. So it is illegal, and imprudent in terms of financial liability and negative publicity, for the administration to retaliate against faculty in any way for unionizing. Specifically, Section 1201 of the PERA makes the following types of conduct illegal:
- Interfering [with], restraining or coercing employees in the exercise of their right to organize, form, join or assist in employee organizations [including unions] or to engage in lawful concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid and protection.
- Dominating or interfering with the formation, existence or administration of any employee organization.
- Discriminating in regard to hire or tenure of employment or any term or condition of employment to encourage or discourage membership in any employee organization.
- Discharging or otherwise discriminating against an employee because he or she has signed or filed an affidavit, petition or complaint or given any information or testimony under this act.
- Refusing to bargain collectively in good faith with an employee representative which is the exclusive representative of employees in an appropriate unit, including but not limited to the discussing of grievances with the exclusive representative.
Since we have a Faculty Assembly and Senate Council, why do we need a union? Will the union undermine shared governance?
While the Faculty Assembly and the faculty who serve on the University Senate do important work in the University, their role is merely advisory, and the administration is free to ignore anything the Faculty Assembly recommends. This differs dramatically from a union, since the administration is required by law to bargain a contract with the union in good faith, and, once the contract is agreed upon and ratified, the administration is legally bound to it. Further, only some topics are subject to collective bargaining (generally, topics relevant to the faculty's terms and conditions of employment). The need for shared governance, over many of the same subjects that the Senate currently addresses, remains. Shared governance is also more effective at institutions with unionized faculty.
If we have to pay dues to the union, couldn't we end up with even less than we have now?
Dues in the USW are 1.45% of each member’s gross monthly earnings plus $0.02 per hour. (Part-time faculty paid by the credit hour or contact hour pay 1.5%, with no per-hour component.) These dues only kick in after we’ve voted to ratify a contract, and doing so is up to us.
Although there are no guarantees of what wage increases a particular contract will include, nationwide, first contracts for faculty almost always include substantial wage increases. We would have no reason to vote in favor of a contract in which the raises didn't substantially exceed the dues, which is why substantial increases are the norm.
Although there are no guarantees of what wage increases a particular contract will include, nationwide, first contracts for faculty almost always include substantial wage increases. We would have no reason to vote in favor of a contract in which the raises didn't substantially exceed the dues, which is why substantial increases are the norm.
Will we have a say in the USW's policies?
Yes. The USW is a democratic organization, from its Local Unions all the way up to its International officers. The Bargaining Committee for the Union of Pitt Faculty will be made up of faculty who are elected by their colleagues (making sure that each unit and campus are represented), and who will negotiate the union contract assisted by expert negotiators, lawyers, and researchers provided by the the USW International Union. Just like any other USW Local Union, the Union of Pitt Faculty will elect officers from its own ranks, and those officers must take their direction from the members at monthly general membership meetings. (For example, Local Union officers cannot spend any money without prior authorization directly from the members in a monthly meeting.) The Union of Pitt Faculty will also send delegates to the USW International Convention every three years, along with all the other USW Local Unions, and the Convention sets the International's policies and goals. The officers of the USW International Union are directly elected by all USW members on a one-person, one-vote basis.
Shouldn't we give the administration a chance to make things better?
One common response of administrators to a unionization drive is to claim that they were unaware of the faculty’s concerns and want a chance to address those concerns without “outside interference” from the union. This response is misleading because the union is not an “outside entity.” Pitt faculty are the union. What changes when we form a union is just that our conversations with the administration become conversations between equals rather than between a superior and subordinates. And remember that without a union contract, any improvement the administration makes, it can take back later.
Will department chairs be included in the union?
The exact composition of the bargaining unit is, within certain legal limits, subject to negotiation. (The term “bargaining unit” refers to all of the people covered by the collective bargaining agreement.) But in 2015, the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board ruled that department chairs at Temple University (one of the other three state-related institutions in PA) should be excluded from their faculty bargaining unit (which previously included them). That precedent would apply to Pitt as well, so we believe that, for the time being, there are insuperable legal obstacles preventing department or division chairs from being included in the bargaining unit.
Why combine all faculty at all ranks into one union?
A union gets its power from people standing together, from solidarity. This means that all divisions between faculty reduce their power and give the administration the opportunity to pit one group of faculty against another. Our common interests as scholars, teachers, and clinicians outweigh any differences in our job descriptions. All of us, whether tenured or not, full-time or part-time, in Oakland or the regional campuses, share core interests in salary and stability, in strengthening academic freedom, and in protecting our teaching from a consumer model of higher education. Forming a union together is a way to reaffirm our shared commitment to students, to patients, to our colleagues, and to the University itself, as we call it back to its original priorities: its academic mission and the common good.
Collective bargaining in higher education has increased dramatically in recent years, and successful all-faculty unions include the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculty, the California Faculty Association, the Professional Staff Congress (at CUNY), United University Professions (at SUNY), the Massachusetts Society of Professors, the United Academics of the University of Oregon, and many others.
Collective bargaining in higher education has increased dramatically in recent years, and successful all-faculty unions include the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculty, the California Faculty Association, the Professional Staff Congress (at CUNY), United University Professions (at SUNY), the Massachusetts Society of Professors, the United Academics of the University of Oregon, and many others.
Isn't there a danger that the union will undermine my academic freedom?
No. Neither the Union of Pitt Faculty nor the USW will interfere in our academic freedom in any way whatsoever. On the contrary, one important priority in bargaining a contract will be to bargain strong, enforceable language protecting the academic freedom of all faculty in teaching and research, as well as speech inside and outside the University.
Will unionizing make Pitt less efficient or less financially sound than similar public research facilities?
No. Recent research shows that unionized public universities are more financially efficient, not less. One possible explanation for this is that the presence of a faculty union creates institutional pressures that discourage administrative bloat and frivolous spending. Unionization also tends to encourage employee participation, which typically has the effect of increasing efficiency.
How is the administration likely to respond to unionization?
University administrators normally first respond to unionization by professing to have had no idea that faculty had concerns and offering to address those concerns immediately. They will present “the union” as an outside entity interfering in our relationship with our employer (whereas, in fact, our union just is us and our colleagues). When this doesn’t work, administrators will often switch to veiled threats, ominous pronouncements, and misinformation, usually crafted by fabulously expensive anti-union consultants.
Couldn't the administration just refuse to bargain with the union?
No. Under the Public Employee Relations Act, the administration is obligated to bargain with the union in good faith. It is unlawful for the administration to refuse to bargain, to unreasonably delay meetings, to insist on meeting at unreasonable times, or to refuse to provide relevant information to the union. The administration cannot be forced to agree to any particular proposal made by the faculty union, but the administration will have strong incentives to reach an agreement in a timely fashion. The faculty at the University of Oregon, for example, recently formed a union and bargained their first union contract in a mere six months.
Can the administration take away what we currently have in response to us unionizing?
No. Under the Public Employee Relations Act, the University is obligated to bargain with the union any changes to our terms and conditions of employment before it could implement them. So the administration will be required to maintain the status quo during bargaining, and our union will focus on winning improvements at the bargaining table. Even threatening to take anything from faculty as a punishment for unionizing is illegal.
Where can I find more information about academic unions or unions in general?
- Ernst Benjamin and Michael Mauer, eds., Academic Collective Bargaining (MLA, 2006).
- Joe Berry, Reclaiming the Ivory Tower: Organizing Adjuncts to Change Higher Education (Monthly Review Press, 2005).
- Bill Fletcher, Jr., “They’re Bankrupting Us!” and 20 Other Myths About Unions (Beacon Press, 2012).
Will the administration know if I sign a union card?
Union authorization cards are confidential—no administrator will know if you signed a card unless you tell them. The Union has submitted the signed cards to the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board to demonstrate the "showing of interest" required for an election. Section 95.17 of the PLRB's Rules and Regulations prohibits furnishing the cards or the names of card signers to the employer or to anyone else.
Other questions?
Have questions that aren’t answered above? Contact us at [email protected]. We’re more than happy to address any questions or concerns.
