What can a faculty union do for me?
Every union contract is different, because each contract addresses the context of that particular institution and because the union will focus its efforts on whatever issues those particular members prioritize. So there’s no way to know for certain what would be in a union contract at Pitt. But looking at what has been won in other contracts can give us a sense of what is possible. The discussion below focuses on provisions in other public-sector union contracts in Pennsylvania (all of which are readily available online), including the contract covering the fourteen institutions in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (APSCUF), as well as Lincoln University (AAUP) and Temple University (AFT). (Out of the eighteen public institutions in Pennsylvania, only Penn State now lacks a faculty union.)
While there’s no way to know for certain what we will get in a contract, there is one certainty: with a union, we have a voice at the table and can bargain with the administration as an equal. Without a union, we are subject to whims of whoever happens to occupy the Chancellor’s office.
While there’s no way to know for certain what we will get in a contract, there is one certainty: with a union, we have a voice at the table and can bargain with the administration as an equal. Without a union, we are subject to whims of whoever happens to occupy the Chancellor’s office.
Job Security
In order to do our jobs well as faculty, we need to have some assurance that we will not lose our jobs in an arbitrary, capricious, or discriminatory manner, or in retaliation for the legitimate exercise of academic freedom. But currently, no faculty at Pitt have perfectly secure employment, although there is wide variation in how precariously employed faculty are. Part-time faculty are contracted normally just for one course for a single semester, so they can’t count on continuing employment and they are, in effect, automatically fired every fifteen weeks and have to reapply if they want to return—even if they’ve been teaching at Pitt for a decade.
Full-time non-tenure-stream faculty usually have longer-term contracts, but they too can be denied contract renewal for any reason or for no reason, according to inconsistent and unpredictable procedures that vary widely across departments and schools. Tenure-track faculty have a similar experience of precarity in the lead-up to their tenure review. Tenured faculty have the greatest job security, and Chapter II, Sections 4.6-4.9 of the University Bylaws specify that their continued employment can be involuntarily terminated only for cause or due to financial exigency. But this arrangement amounts to a gentleman’s agreement, since it is not really enforceable (see Due Process below). Terminations of tenured faculty without cause (or administrators deciding to abolish tenure altogether) have occurred at in institutions where faculty lack union protection. Job security is a basic condition of academic freedom, which is a central concern for teaching and research faculty alike (see Academic Freedom below). But our current system denies protections precisely to the faculty who are at the most risk of challenges to their academic freedom.
The only way to obtain real, enforceable job security is through a contract that provides it, and only if we bargain collectively will we have the leverage to persuade the administration to commit to real, enforceable job security. One approach that faculty unions have taken is simply to bargain the traditional protections of tenure into the union contract (which is not generally a difficult undertaking since, by law, bargaining begins from the status quo, not from zero). Both the APSCUF contract and the Temple contract adopt that approach, and the Lincoln contract even incorporates the AAUP’s 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure word for word. One approach to non-tenure-stream faculty job security is to create a conversion process. The APSCUF contract, for example, provides that, once a full-time non-tenure-stream faculty member has worked for five consecutive years, he or she can be moved to the tenure stream simply by a majority vote of the department’s tenure-stream faculty. Similarly, one can bargain a structure in which part-time faculty enter the tenure stream after a certain period (as in the VCCFA contract), or (as in the APSCUF contract) in which part-time faculty are moved to longer-term contracts (1-year, then 3-year) after a certain period, or in which there is a pathway for qualified part-time faculty to move into vacant full-time positions.
Of course, no union contract provides anyone with a “permanent job for life,” since, among other things, financial crisis can compel an institution to shed whole programs in order to stay afloat. But in those dire circumstances, a union contract can ensure that the faculty union is consulted in advance, that alternative strategies for addressing the financial crisis are explored, and that the affected faculty are treated fairly. The APSCUF contract, for example, in addition to requiring consultation with the faculty union, requires the administration to try to place faculty in other positions before retrenchment and gives retrenched faculty preference for faculty positions that open up thereafter.
Full-time non-tenure-stream faculty usually have longer-term contracts, but they too can be denied contract renewal for any reason or for no reason, according to inconsistent and unpredictable procedures that vary widely across departments and schools. Tenure-track faculty have a similar experience of precarity in the lead-up to their tenure review. Tenured faculty have the greatest job security, and Chapter II, Sections 4.6-4.9 of the University Bylaws specify that their continued employment can be involuntarily terminated only for cause or due to financial exigency. But this arrangement amounts to a gentleman’s agreement, since it is not really enforceable (see Due Process below). Terminations of tenured faculty without cause (or administrators deciding to abolish tenure altogether) have occurred at in institutions where faculty lack union protection. Job security is a basic condition of academic freedom, which is a central concern for teaching and research faculty alike (see Academic Freedom below). But our current system denies protections precisely to the faculty who are at the most risk of challenges to their academic freedom.
The only way to obtain real, enforceable job security is through a contract that provides it, and only if we bargain collectively will we have the leverage to persuade the administration to commit to real, enforceable job security. One approach that faculty unions have taken is simply to bargain the traditional protections of tenure into the union contract (which is not generally a difficult undertaking since, by law, bargaining begins from the status quo, not from zero). Both the APSCUF contract and the Temple contract adopt that approach, and the Lincoln contract even incorporates the AAUP’s 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure word for word. One approach to non-tenure-stream faculty job security is to create a conversion process. The APSCUF contract, for example, provides that, once a full-time non-tenure-stream faculty member has worked for five consecutive years, he or she can be moved to the tenure stream simply by a majority vote of the department’s tenure-stream faculty. Similarly, one can bargain a structure in which part-time faculty enter the tenure stream after a certain period (as in the VCCFA contract), or (as in the APSCUF contract) in which part-time faculty are moved to longer-term contracts (1-year, then 3-year) after a certain period, or in which there is a pathway for qualified part-time faculty to move into vacant full-time positions.
Of course, no union contract provides anyone with a “permanent job for life,” since, among other things, financial crisis can compel an institution to shed whole programs in order to stay afloat. But in those dire circumstances, a union contract can ensure that the faculty union is consulted in advance, that alternative strategies for addressing the financial crisis are explored, and that the affected faculty are treated fairly. The APSCUF contract, for example, in addition to requiring consultation with the faculty union, requires the administration to try to place faculty in other positions before retrenchment and gives retrenched faculty preference for faculty positions that open up thereafter.
Due Process
If Pitt’s administration fires a tenured faculty member without cause (and not due to financial exigency), or violates a faculty member’s academic freedom, or unjustly denies a faculty member contract renewal, tenure, or promotion, the only recourse currently is the University’s Faculty Reviews and Appeals procedure. This procedure is very long, very complex, and creates a great deal of work for the faculty involved, but ultimately the faculty serve in a purely advisory role and it is up to the Chancellor to unilaterally decide the matter. So, for all its complexity, this appeals process provides neither peer review nor independent adjudication. If one of us is wronged by the administration, our only recourse is to beg the administration to reconsider.
In some states, faculty have successfully sued a college or university for breach of contract on the grounds that the administration violated the faculty handbook, university by-laws, or similar documents (i.e., documents that are not contracts signed by both the employer and the employee). Unfortunately, in Pennsylvania, faculty in such cases rarely prevail. As one decision succinctly put it, “Under Pennsylvania law, employment relationships are presumed to be at-will. An employee can overcome this presumption by presenting evidence of a contract with specific and definite terms regarding length of employment or cause of termination.” In that case the Court found that, since the faculty handbook gave the President and the Board final authority in tenure decisions, the faculty handbook did not override the presumption of at-will employment (Pourki v. Drexel University, No. 98-4231, 1999 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4519 (E.D. Pa. Mar. 24, 1999)). (“At-will” employment means that you can be denied promotion, disciplined, or fired for any reason or for no reason, as long as it is not discrimination on the basis of race, gender, religion, disability, pregnancy, age, or, in the public sector in Pennsylvania, sexual orientation or gender identity.) Pitt’s Bylaws provide that “The power of appointment and correlative power of dismissal of any member of the faculty are committed to the Board of Trustees. However, it is the policy of the Board to delegate those powers to the Chancellor and Chief Executive Officer as head of the University Faculty, who may redelegate these powers except in the case of tenured faculty” (Chapter II, Section 3.4). So an attempt to enforce the existing tenure system through a lawsuit would have very little hope of success.
A union contract provides a powerful alternative. We can negotiate a collectively bargained agreement with a robust and impartial procedure for resolving grievances. Under Section 903 of the Pennsylvania Employe Relations Act, a union grievance procedure must culminate in neutral, legally binding arbitration—in contrast to the University’s internal, non-binding Faculty Reviews and Appeals procedure. These procedures give faculty an opportunity to remedy any situation in which they have been treated unfairly or subjected to arbitrary, capricious, or discriminatory treatment.
In some states, faculty have successfully sued a college or university for breach of contract on the grounds that the administration violated the faculty handbook, university by-laws, or similar documents (i.e., documents that are not contracts signed by both the employer and the employee). Unfortunately, in Pennsylvania, faculty in such cases rarely prevail. As one decision succinctly put it, “Under Pennsylvania law, employment relationships are presumed to be at-will. An employee can overcome this presumption by presenting evidence of a contract with specific and definite terms regarding length of employment or cause of termination.” In that case the Court found that, since the faculty handbook gave the President and the Board final authority in tenure decisions, the faculty handbook did not override the presumption of at-will employment (Pourki v. Drexel University, No. 98-4231, 1999 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4519 (E.D. Pa. Mar. 24, 1999)). (“At-will” employment means that you can be denied promotion, disciplined, or fired for any reason or for no reason, as long as it is not discrimination on the basis of race, gender, religion, disability, pregnancy, age, or, in the public sector in Pennsylvania, sexual orientation or gender identity.) Pitt’s Bylaws provide that “The power of appointment and correlative power of dismissal of any member of the faculty are committed to the Board of Trustees. However, it is the policy of the Board to delegate those powers to the Chancellor and Chief Executive Officer as head of the University Faculty, who may redelegate these powers except in the case of tenured faculty” (Chapter II, Section 3.4). So an attempt to enforce the existing tenure system through a lawsuit would have very little hope of success.
A union contract provides a powerful alternative. We can negotiate a collectively bargained agreement with a robust and impartial procedure for resolving grievances. Under Section 903 of the Pennsylvania Employe Relations Act, a union grievance procedure must culminate in neutral, legally binding arbitration—in contrast to the University’s internal, non-binding Faculty Reviews and Appeals procedure. These procedures give faculty an opportunity to remedy any situation in which they have been treated unfairly or subjected to arbitrary, capricious, or discriminatory treatment.
Pay
At all ranks at Pitt, faculty pay is a problem both in absolute and in relative terms. Part-time faculty are the most obvious case, since many are paid at a rate below the poverty line (some as little as $2,500 per course, and many at around $4,000 per course). Full-time non-tenure-stream faculty are paid well below the pay rates at AAU peer institutions—despite long-standing commitments by the administration to keep Pitt salaries at or above the AAU median for each rank. And even tenured faculty face gender inequities, salary compression, and cost-of-living raises that do not keep up with inflation (the gender wage gap for full professors actually worsened between 2003 and 2014). Salaries for faculty at all ranks below associate professor are well below the median salaries of our peer public AAU universities, according to the University’s own reports. And faculty at all ranks in the branch campuses are paid significantly less than faculty at the same rank in Oakland.
Faculty union contracts take a wide variety of approaches to pay, especially to complex issues like remedying gender inequities. But for a large, complex research university, it is more common for the contract to specify salary minima, giving programs the flexibility to use higher pay rates to recruit or retain faculty candidates, as in the Temple contract. But, as the Temple contract also exemplifies, you can also bargain reliable cost of living increases and merit-based increases, which then become not mere promises but contractual obligations.
Faculty union contracts take a wide variety of approaches to pay, especially to complex issues like remedying gender inequities. But for a large, complex research university, it is more common for the contract to specify salary minima, giving programs the flexibility to use higher pay rates to recruit or retain faculty candidates, as in the Temple contract. But, as the Temple contract also exemplifies, you can also bargain reliable cost of living increases and merit-based increases, which then become not mere promises but contractual obligations.
Benefits
One ominous development at Pitt is the erosion of health benefits for part-time faculty in some programs, such as Social Work. Hitherto, Pitt has been distinguished from most of the institutions in the region by offering health insurance to most part-time faculty, but this development shows that, as things stand, what faculty have can be taken back without warning. Moreover, faculty currently don’t have the bargaining power to affect the details of the health plans they do have, which are subject to unilateral modification. Even information about what benefits are available can be difficult to obtain, since the administration in some cases has a financial interest in faculty not taking advantage of all of the benefits available. For example, new full-time faculty hires are often discouraged from taking advantage of Pitt’s defined-benefit pension option and encouraged instead to choose the defined-contribution option, a decision that individuals can never reverse. By directing new employees into the defined contribution plan the administration is quietly weakening the more generous and reliable pension option, which relies on broad participation. The benefits in a union contract, by contrast, would be protected and changes to retirement plans would have to be bargained. Moreover, the union would be in a position to ensure that all new hires were well aware of the benefits available to them and would have an interest in assisting them in choosing the options most favorable to the faculty member.
Faculty union contracts typically encompass a wide array of benefits. The APSCUF contract, for example, includes health benefits; retirement benefits; tuition remission for faculty, spouses, domestic partners, and children; life insurance; long-term disability insurance; and a wide array of leaves of absence, including professional development leave, sick leave, parental leave, child-rearing leave, family care leave, disability leave, military leave, jury duty leave, and union service leave. Under that contract, all faculty have access to benefits, including part-time faculty on a pro rata basis (as long as they teach at least half of a full-time course load).
Faculty union contracts typically encompass a wide array of benefits. The APSCUF contract, for example, includes health benefits; retirement benefits; tuition remission for faculty, spouses, domestic partners, and children; life insurance; long-term disability insurance; and a wide array of leaves of absence, including professional development leave, sick leave, parental leave, child-rearing leave, family care leave, disability leave, military leave, jury duty leave, and union service leave. Under that contract, all faculty have access to benefits, including part-time faculty on a pro rata basis (as long as they teach at least half of a full-time course load).
Workload
The normal tenure-stream teaching load at Pitt decreased in recent memory, but increased demands for research productivity (and a significantly higher bar for tenure) have resulted in ever-increasing faculty workloads. And despite the erosion of shared governance and the dramatic increase in the number of administrators, faculty are saddled with more and more service work. While we value service as an expression of our commitment to the university, our students, and our departments, much of the increase in service loads is due to ever increasing demands for reports to fulfill administrative requirements for data rather than responding to real needs in our programs. Service work particularly tends to fall disproportionately on non-tenure-stream faculty and on female faculty, not to mention visible minorities who feel pressured to add “diversity” to countless committees. And part-time faculty, as a result of their shockingly poor compensation, are obliged to maintain multiple jobs adding up to at least full-time work but with the added time and expense of transportation between and coordination across multiple employers. And current workloads, high as they are, can be changed at any time. Contracts for new tenure-stream faculty explicitly provide that the administration can unilaterally change anyone’s teaching load based on (the administration’s assessment of) “departmental or school need.”
A union contract can specify what the expected faculty workload will be, and can provide mechanisms through which faculty can select different proportions of research, teaching, and service. The APSCUF contract, for example, limits not only the total course load, but it also limits the number of different preparations and limits the number of mandatory office hours. That contract also provides formulae for calculating workload equivalents for a wide range of activities within the campus community. We can serve our programs and do the important work of the university without our commitments being exploited and our workload constantly increased.
A union contract can specify what the expected faculty workload will be, and can provide mechanisms through which faculty can select different proportions of research, teaching, and service. The APSCUF contract, for example, limits not only the total course load, but it also limits the number of different preparations and limits the number of mandatory office hours. That contract also provides formulae for calculating workload equivalents for a wide range of activities within the campus community. We can serve our programs and do the important work of the university without our commitments being exploited and our workload constantly increased.
Promotion & Performance Evaluation
Maintaining a high standard of quality in teaching and research, and creating conditions that enable faculty to do their best work, should be a major goal of the University. But at all levels, performance evaluation is conducted in a haphazard or obscure manner. New tenure-stream faculty face a tenure process with vague criteria and opaque procedures, as a result of which they must rely on a well-intentioned but baffling and contradictory array of advice from colleagues. Full-time non-tenure-stream faculty face a reappointment process that is similarly obscure, and face it over and over again each time they reach the term of their contract. And part-time faculty are often evaluated on the basis of student surveys alone, in violation of a long tradition in Universities of evaluation grounded in peer review, and despite a large body of evidence that student surveys are an unreliable and biased instrument for evaluating teacher performance. Part-time faculty who do outstanding work can expect no recognition for excellence, and have no access to a pathway to full-time employment, regardless of merit.
A union contract can incorporate detailed requirements for performance evaluation, tenure, and promotion, and can make sure that they are enforceable. The APSCUF contract, for example, incorporates fair and explicit criteria for evaluating all faculty, thus making clear what the expectations of the University are and providing faculty with opportunities to be recognized for achievement.
A union contract can incorporate detailed requirements for performance evaluation, tenure, and promotion, and can make sure that they are enforceable. The APSCUF contract, for example, incorporates fair and explicit criteria for evaluating all faculty, thus making clear what the expectations of the University are and providing faculty with opportunities to be recognized for achievement.
Governance
In addition to the University Senate, Pitt has a wide array of committees and councils through which faculty are to exercise their role in shared governance. But while the Faculty Handbook does endow faculty with significant authority over what they do in their classrooms and labs, in virtually every other area the faculty are consigned to a merely advisory role. Even the Senate is explicitly charged merely with making recommendations and maintaining “communication” between various groups, while the administration keeps real decision-making power for itself. And while non-tenure-stream faculty at Pitt are increasingly included in university service and shared governance, contingent employment contracts strongly militate against vigorous advocacy on behalf of students and faculty.
One of the reasons unionization strengthens faculty governance rather than undermining it is that the two cover overlapping but not identical sets of issues. Many topics, such as curricular details, are squarely within the purview of faculty governance and are normally not topics of collective bargaining. But the presence of the union gives the faculty voice more power, wherever it is heard. And a union contract can define the contours of governance in ways that support the faculty’s essential role and give faculty more of a say over the actual decisions. In collective bargaining, the faculty is not acting in a merely advisory capacity; rather, the administration is required by law to bargain with the faculty in good faith. So the union strengthens governance, and governance extends the faculty’s reach.
One of the reasons unionization strengthens faculty governance rather than undermining it is that the two cover overlapping but not identical sets of issues. Many topics, such as curricular details, are squarely within the purview of faculty governance and are normally not topics of collective bargaining. But the presence of the union gives the faculty voice more power, wherever it is heard. And a union contract can define the contours of governance in ways that support the faculty’s essential role and give faculty more of a say over the actual decisions. In collective bargaining, the faculty is not acting in a merely advisory capacity; rather, the administration is required by law to bargain with the faculty in good faith. So the union strengthens governance, and governance extends the faculty’s reach.
Research & Teaching Support
Research is central to Pitt’s mission, both in the sense that the University carries out research as part of its mission and in the sense that it offers students the opportunity to learn from scholars who are not merely excellent teachers but also active researchers in their field. But research requires material support if it’s going to be carried out at all, much less carried out in a manner undistorted by outside interests. Similarly, good teaching, which is equally central to Pitt’s mission, requires material support, not least to ensure that faculty are able to keep abreast of their fields and to keep expanding their toolkits as teachers. Both original research and curricular or course design require considerable time, and both activities benefit from having enough time to carry out the work thoughtfully. But while the administration currently offers substantial research support to some faculty, it offers little or no research support to many, if not most, faculty and provides little or no professional development resources for faculty in teaching-intensive positions, despite constant declarations from administrators of the university’s commitment to teaching.
A union contract can stipulate exactly the kinds of support that faculty need. The APSCUF contract, for example, provides for faculty sabbaticals every seven years (including a transparent process for allocating sabbaticals), as well as travel expenses for scholarly work. That contract also funds a Professional Development Council that supports pedagogical and scholarly development.
A union contract can stipulate exactly the kinds of support that faculty need. The APSCUF contract, for example, provides for faculty sabbaticals every seven years (including a transparent process for allocating sabbaticals), as well as travel expenses for scholarly work. That contract also funds a Professional Development Council that supports pedagogical and scholarly development.
Health & Safety
In any major research university with extensive teaching and research being conducted in the natural sciences and the health sciences, ensuring the safety and health of faculty and students is a crucial issue. This is doubly so because of the ways in which faculty can be individually liable for accidents that happen in their labs.
A union contract can specify the obligations on both sides to maintain safe conditions and also can provide a process for addressing potentially hazardous conditions that might arise. The Temple contract, and, in a more detailed way, the CFA contract, both offer provisions of this kind.
A union contract can specify the obligations on both sides to maintain safe conditions and also can provide a process for addressing potentially hazardous conditions that might arise. The Temple contract, and, in a more detailed way, the CFA contract, both offer provisions of this kind.
Intellectual Property
Under the law, the intellectual property status of faculty work is much disputed. Normally, intellectual property rights automatically go to the creator(s) of the property in question, but this is not true in the case of “work for hire,” where an employee is tasked with creating a specific piece of intellectual property. Higher education faculty are in a complex position because of the combination of their status as employees and their autonomy as scholars. But given the avowed interest of Pitt’s administration in commercializing faculty research as much as possible, there is a real danger of the administration claiming proprietary rights over everything from patents to recorded lectures. Absent a union contract specifying our intellectual property rights, we could only enforce those rights through costly, time-consuming litigation, and the legal terrain is such that there’s a good chance that we’d lose.
For this reason, academic union contracts often address the issue of intellectual property in some detail. The APSCUF contract, for example, enumerates kinds of scholarly work that are automatically the sole property of their authors, such as scholarly publications, textbooks, and course materials. That contract also specifies that if the administration is going to claim a proprietary interest in any intellectual property produced by a faculty member, the exact nature of the ownership and creative control over that intellectual property must be worked out in advance by a specific agreement between the faculty member and the administration.
For this reason, academic union contracts often address the issue of intellectual property in some detail. The APSCUF contract, for example, enumerates kinds of scholarly work that are automatically the sole property of their authors, such as scholarly publications, textbooks, and course materials. That contract also specifies that if the administration is going to claim a proprietary interest in any intellectual property produced by a faculty member, the exact nature of the ownership and creative control over that intellectual property must be worked out in advance by a specific agreement between the faculty member and the administration.
Academic Freedom
Academic freedom is a fundamental right of all faculty that is necessary to the effective performance of our duties. Currently, Pitt faculty have some assurance in the University Bylaws of their academic freedom (though the language on academic freedom is incorporated into a discussion of tenure in such a way that it’s not clear whether non-tenure-stream faculty are included) and other statements. But the absence of an effective enforcement mechanism makes these assurances amount to little more than a gentlemen’s agreement that the administration is free to violate at will. Moreover, the precarious employment status of non-tenure-stream and untenured faculty has a chilling effect on the robust exercise of academic freedom. Real challenges to academic freedom are a particular risk in the context of teaching, as students and outside political groups are much more likely to take offense at classroom speech than are the academic audiences for faculty research, but faculty in teaching-intensive positions are the most likely to lack the protections conferred by tenure.
Academic union contracts almost always provide strong language protecting the academic freedom of all faculty and enforcing that protection through the grievance and arbitration procedure. It is typical to cover all four main areas of academic freedom: teaching, research, intramural speech (i.e., speech within the University community), and extramural speech (i.e., speech in the public sphere, including political speech). Many contracts, such as the APSCUF contract, closely model their language on AAUP’s 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure, and some, such as the Lincoln contract, incorporate the text of that whole document verbatim.
Academic union contracts almost always provide strong language protecting the academic freedom of all faculty and enforcing that protection through the grievance and arbitration procedure. It is typical to cover all four main areas of academic freedom: teaching, research, intramural speech (i.e., speech within the University community), and extramural speech (i.e., speech in the public sphere, including political speech). Many contracts, such as the APSCUF contract, closely model their language on AAUP’s 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure, and some, such as the Lincoln contract, incorporate the text of that whole document verbatim.
Civil Rights
Pitt’s policies, as well as state and federal laws, prohibit discrimination and harassment on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, sex, age, marital status, familial status, sexual orientation, disability, or veteran status. Those policies also commit the University to affirmative action with the aim of achieving genuine diversity and inclusion. But the administrative offices intended to address these issues are often driven more by the University’s desire to limit its legal liability than by a lived commitment to social justice. And while in certain cases people subjected to discrimination or harassment have some recourse through the courts or through a complaint to the EEOC, those venues make enforcement difficult for a variety of reasons. The EEOC, for example, is notoriously underfunded, and a person bringing a complaint that they have been fired because of their race would have to provide definite proof that racial bias is the only reason for their dismissal—an evidentiary standard that is exceedingly difficult to meet. For this reason, policies pertaining to civil rights are very difficult to enforce.
Incorporating such policies into a union contract (as virtually all union contracts do) has a number of advantages. One advantage is enforcement through the grievance and arbitration procedure, which provides genuinely independent adjudication far more swiftly than the courts or government agencies. Another advantage is being able to extend protections to groups that the laws have been slow to protect or that are especially salient in an academic context. For example, the anti-discrimination language in the APSCUF contract prohibits discrimination on the basis of “political belief and/or affiliation,” which is not a form of discrimination that is otherwise illegal.
Incorporating such policies into a union contract (as virtually all union contracts do) has a number of advantages. One advantage is enforcement through the grievance and arbitration procedure, which provides genuinely independent adjudication far more swiftly than the courts or government agencies. Another advantage is being able to extend protections to groups that the laws have been slow to protect or that are especially salient in an academic context. For example, the anti-discrimination language in the APSCUF contract prohibits discrimination on the basis of “political belief and/or affiliation,” which is not a form of discrimination that is otherwise illegal.
Academic Mission
Above all, the priorities of the University should be determined by its mission. Since it is faculty who carry out that mission, faculty are in the best position to determine those priorities appropriately. It is faculty who are committed to the unfettered pursuit of truth (in, for example, financial support for general research in the natural sciences rather than support only for research whose outcomes can be commercialized). It is faculty who are committed to maintaining high academic standards. It is faculty who are committed to serving the public good, rather than the merely parochial interests of businesspeople. But as things stand, the faculty have very little power to make sure that the administration carries out its duties in a manner consistent with genuine commitment to the mission.
Having a union gives faculty the power to influence the priorities and behavior of the institution, even in areas that fall outside the purview of collective bargaining, because the faculty have power when they act collectively. A union of faculty would immediately become a major political force in Pennsylvania, and it would give us a powerful voice in Harrisburg to increase state funding and to protect Pitt against worrying trends in other states toward even more punitive disinvestment in public higher education and the erosion of academic freedom.
Having a union gives faculty the power to influence the priorities and behavior of the institution, even in areas that fall outside the purview of collective bargaining, because the faculty have power when they act collectively. A union of faculty would immediately become a major political force in Pennsylvania, and it would give us a powerful voice in Harrisburg to increase state funding and to protect Pitt against worrying trends in other states toward even more punitive disinvestment in public higher education and the erosion of academic freedom.
If these sound like worthy goals, then contact us to get involved.
As a democratic organization, we want to hear from as many of our colleagues as possible and to make ourselves readily available to anyone who has questions. The best way to get everyone’s input is through face-to-face conversations, so we’ll try to catch people in their offices or after class (or, failing that, at home). If you’d like to set up a more convenient time or place to meet with us (or if you would prefer not to be contacted by us at all), or if you’d like to join the Organizing Committee and help make the union a success, please contact [email protected]. There are many different ways to participate that can fit your schedule, whether you have a lot of time to spare or only a little, so let us know if you’d like to help grow the union!
As a democratic organization, we want to hear from as many of our colleagues as possible and to make ourselves readily available to anyone who has questions. The best way to get everyone’s input is through face-to-face conversations, so we’ll try to catch people in their offices or after class (or, failing that, at home). If you’d like to set up a more convenient time or place to meet with us (or if you would prefer not to be contacted by us at all), or if you’d like to join the Organizing Committee and help make the union a success, please contact [email protected]. There are many different ways to participate that can fit your schedule, whether you have a lot of time to spare or only a little, so let us know if you’d like to help grow the union!
