BARGAINING UPDATE
July 14, 2023
Takeaways:
Dear colleagues,
We met with the administration on Tuesday, July 11th. We had a productive session in which we exchanged a number of proposals and reached a tentative agreement (TA) on faculty evaluations, a core article that establishes procedures for evaluating our work fairly and transparently.
This article includes several important protections. Most notably, student evaluations may not be used as the sole or primary metric by which our teaching performance is assessed. While student surveys provide important feedback, they have also been shown to be biased and to have questionable value in measuring teaching effectiveness. Winning this protection in our first contract is a major achievement that sets Pitt apart as a leader on this important issue. The article also ensures that all bargaining unit faculty will receive performance evaluations, so that we can all benefit from the advancement and development opportunities that regular and transparent evaluations make possible. It includes a fair and predictable process for performance improvement plans for faculty whose work is unsatisfactory. Finally, evaluations of faculty performance will include all areas of our academic workload, explicitly including service work.
In addition to the TA on faculty evaluations, we exchanged proposals pertaining to part-time appointment stream faculty, visiting faculty, tenure stream faculty, tenured faculty, and the grievance and arbitration procedure. We are close to agreement on the articles regarding part-time and visiting faculty, but continue to push the administration to limit the use of temporary positions and offer part-time faculty paths to regular and full-time employment. We are also making progress on the articles pertaining to tenure-stream faculty, tenured faculty, and the grievance and arbitration process. The administration has agreed to offer flexible contract lengths for tenure-stream faculty, and to clarify timelines and procedures for tenure and promotion. However, we remain apart on some basic job protections for these groups. While the administration argues that their own internal procedures are sufficient, we continue to insist that tenured and tenure-stream faculty receive the same union protections as everyone else: just cause in the case of termination, and neutral arbitration in cases of denials of promotion or tenure.
We are proud of the agreements we have come to in the past few bargaining sessions, but we are frustrated by the infrequency of the administration’s availability and the lack of progress between bargaining sessions. In the spring we were meeting three times a month, but they have again started to limit their availability to twice a month. Our bargaining unit is complex and constructing a good contract requires time at the table. Our bargaining committee is available and ready to bargain as frequently as possible, and on any date the administration offers. Two days a month is simply not enough.
The more members we have, the stronger we are in negotiations. If you haven’t made it to campus to sign a membership card yet, you’re in luck—we’ll be available at neighborhood coffee shops around Pittsburgh and the regional campuses over the next couple of weeks! Keep an eye on your email for dates, times, and locations of tabling sessions or complete this formto request a conversation about membership. To those of you who have already joined our Union, thank you for your support!
In solidarity,
Your bargaining committee
Tyler Bickford (chair), Professor, English, Oakland
Nicholas Bircher, Part-time Professor, Nurse Anesthesia, Oakland
Lauren Collister, Faculty Librarian, ULS, Oakland
Anthony Fabio, Associate Professor, Epidemiology (Public Health), Oakland
Lech Harris (secretary), Part-time Instructor, English, Oakland
James Hill (archivist), Visiting Assistant Professor, History, Oakland
Haitao Liu, Professor, Chemistry, Oakland
Megan O’Brien, Master Teacher, Falk Laboratory School, Oakland
Stephen Robar, Associate Professor, Political Science, Bradford
Sabrina Robinson, Part-time Instructor, Slavic, Oakland
Evan Schneider, Assistant Professor, Physics and Astronomy, Oakland
Paul Scott, Assistant Professor, Health and Community Systems (Nursing), Oakland
Jeffrey Shook, Professor, Social Work, Oakland
Stacey Triplette, Associate Professor, Spanish, Greensburg
Abagael West, Teaching Assistant Professor, Biological Sciences, Oakland
Links!
- Our new tentative agreement on faculty evaluations limits the use of OMETs to assess our teaching performance
- We are making good progress when we meet, but we are not meeting frequently enough
- Sign a membership card to give us power at the bargaining table!
Dear colleagues,
We met with the administration on Tuesday, July 11th. We had a productive session in which we exchanged a number of proposals and reached a tentative agreement (TA) on faculty evaluations, a core article that establishes procedures for evaluating our work fairly and transparently.
This article includes several important protections. Most notably, student evaluations may not be used as the sole or primary metric by which our teaching performance is assessed. While student surveys provide important feedback, they have also been shown to be biased and to have questionable value in measuring teaching effectiveness. Winning this protection in our first contract is a major achievement that sets Pitt apart as a leader on this important issue. The article also ensures that all bargaining unit faculty will receive performance evaluations, so that we can all benefit from the advancement and development opportunities that regular and transparent evaluations make possible. It includes a fair and predictable process for performance improvement plans for faculty whose work is unsatisfactory. Finally, evaluations of faculty performance will include all areas of our academic workload, explicitly including service work.
In addition to the TA on faculty evaluations, we exchanged proposals pertaining to part-time appointment stream faculty, visiting faculty, tenure stream faculty, tenured faculty, and the grievance and arbitration procedure. We are close to agreement on the articles regarding part-time and visiting faculty, but continue to push the administration to limit the use of temporary positions and offer part-time faculty paths to regular and full-time employment. We are also making progress on the articles pertaining to tenure-stream faculty, tenured faculty, and the grievance and arbitration process. The administration has agreed to offer flexible contract lengths for tenure-stream faculty, and to clarify timelines and procedures for tenure and promotion. However, we remain apart on some basic job protections for these groups. While the administration argues that their own internal procedures are sufficient, we continue to insist that tenured and tenure-stream faculty receive the same union protections as everyone else: just cause in the case of termination, and neutral arbitration in cases of denials of promotion or tenure.
We are proud of the agreements we have come to in the past few bargaining sessions, but we are frustrated by the infrequency of the administration’s availability and the lack of progress between bargaining sessions. In the spring we were meeting three times a month, but they have again started to limit their availability to twice a month. Our bargaining unit is complex and constructing a good contract requires time at the table. Our bargaining committee is available and ready to bargain as frequently as possible, and on any date the administration offers. Two days a month is simply not enough.
The more members we have, the stronger we are in negotiations. If you haven’t made it to campus to sign a membership card yet, you’re in luck—we’ll be available at neighborhood coffee shops around Pittsburgh and the regional campuses over the next couple of weeks! Keep an eye on your email for dates, times, and locations of tabling sessions or complete this formto request a conversation about membership. To those of you who have already joined our Union, thank you for your support!
In solidarity,
Your bargaining committee
Tyler Bickford (chair), Professor, English, Oakland
Nicholas Bircher, Part-time Professor, Nurse Anesthesia, Oakland
Lauren Collister, Faculty Librarian, ULS, Oakland
Anthony Fabio, Associate Professor, Epidemiology (Public Health), Oakland
Lech Harris (secretary), Part-time Instructor, English, Oakland
James Hill (archivist), Visiting Assistant Professor, History, Oakland
Haitao Liu, Professor, Chemistry, Oakland
Megan O’Brien, Master Teacher, Falk Laboratory School, Oakland
Stephen Robar, Associate Professor, Political Science, Bradford
Sabrina Robinson, Part-time Instructor, Slavic, Oakland
Evan Schneider, Assistant Professor, Physics and Astronomy, Oakland
Paul Scott, Assistant Professor, Health and Community Systems (Nursing), Oakland
Jeffrey Shook, Professor, Social Work, Oakland
Stacey Triplette, Associate Professor, Spanish, Greensburg
Abagael West, Teaching Assistant Professor, Biological Sciences, Oakland
Links!
- If someone forwarded this to you, sign up to receive these emails
- Find previous bargaining updates here
- Status of bargaining
- Get in touch with your Council rep
- Get involved with the Communication and Action Team
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