Jason McCune
To my fellow academic workers at the University of Pittsburgh:
You are about to vote on whether to form a union as academic workers of the University of Pittsburgh. This is a wonderful opportunity for you to stand together to exercise your power so that you’ll be able to negotiate a binding legal contract with your employer. You may have fears about taking such a step; there were many people here at Point Park University who had them. You may feel that even taking a stand, organizing, and voting yes will open you up to reprisals or jeopardize your academic standing and position. I assure you, nothing could be further from the truth.
Along with other part-time Point Park faculty, I spent months organizing before finally petitioning for a vote, which we won by a landslide. I then served on the contract bargaining committee, going toe-to-toe with the administration and its anti-union lawyer to hammer out a collective bargaining agreement for the Point Park University part- time faculty. It was the first of its kind in the city, and it guaranteed us rights and provisions that before had only been given at the university’s discretion-- including a 22 percent raise over three and a half years. In the ten years before we’d had only a single 4 percent raise.
This could ONLY be accomplished through collective bargaining, and collective bargaining can ONLY be acquired and legally protected by unionizing. The reason for any group wishing to organize its own union to reach out to an existing one like the USW is that doing so offers all those involved legal protections. You have the right to organize and form a union, and it will be to your benefit to do so.
You may hear that some outside organization will gain control over all aspects of your employment: your rules, your classrooms, your lives. Again, nothing could be further from the truth. You will become your OWN union, run by YOU and your fellow faculty, with rules set by yourselves, for YOUR benefit and protection. Voting yes allows you to do this. The USW is there to help you, but it is not in charge of your union or its members. YOU will sit at the bargaining table, YOU will decide what goes in the contract, and YOU will have the ultimate say, with the USW there to support and facilitate that contract negotiation.
I cannot urge you strongly enough to sign a card and vote yes. Your power lies in standing together as one by forming a union. You have that opportunity now.
--Jason McCune, Conservatory of Performing Arts, Point Park University; USW Local 1088 President
You are about to vote on whether to form a union as academic workers of the University of Pittsburgh. This is a wonderful opportunity for you to stand together to exercise your power so that you’ll be able to negotiate a binding legal contract with your employer. You may have fears about taking such a step; there were many people here at Point Park University who had them. You may feel that even taking a stand, organizing, and voting yes will open you up to reprisals or jeopardize your academic standing and position. I assure you, nothing could be further from the truth.
Along with other part-time Point Park faculty, I spent months organizing before finally petitioning for a vote, which we won by a landslide. I then served on the contract bargaining committee, going toe-to-toe with the administration and its anti-union lawyer to hammer out a collective bargaining agreement for the Point Park University part- time faculty. It was the first of its kind in the city, and it guaranteed us rights and provisions that before had only been given at the university’s discretion-- including a 22 percent raise over three and a half years. In the ten years before we’d had only a single 4 percent raise.
This could ONLY be accomplished through collective bargaining, and collective bargaining can ONLY be acquired and legally protected by unionizing. The reason for any group wishing to organize its own union to reach out to an existing one like the USW is that doing so offers all those involved legal protections. You have the right to organize and form a union, and it will be to your benefit to do so.
You may hear that some outside organization will gain control over all aspects of your employment: your rules, your classrooms, your lives. Again, nothing could be further from the truth. You will become your OWN union, run by YOU and your fellow faculty, with rules set by yourselves, for YOUR benefit and protection. Voting yes allows you to do this. The USW is there to help you, but it is not in charge of your union or its members. YOU will sit at the bargaining table, YOU will decide what goes in the contract, and YOU will have the ultimate say, with the USW there to support and facilitate that contract negotiation.
I cannot urge you strongly enough to sign a card and vote yes. Your power lies in standing together as one by forming a union. You have that opportunity now.
--Jason McCune, Conservatory of Performing Arts, Point Park University; USW Local 1088 President
