BARGAINING UPDATE
July 5, 2022
Dear colleagues,
We met with the administration on June 7 and June 22. We are finally making progress, although it is still much slower than we want. We’d like to meet with the administration more frequently so that we can make faster progress, but they have only agreed to meet twice in the next month. This pace of bargaining and the administration’s reluctance to agree even to simple articles indicates that we’ll need your support to get wins on tougher proposals around job security and pay as bargaining continues.
Falk School: It appears that the administration has backed off of its efforts to exclude the Falk faculty from the contract. Specifically, they are no longer demanding that every article in the contract include language excluding the Falk School, and their most recent counterproposal on who the contract covers drops the exclusion of Falk faculty. They may still seek to treat different groups of faculty differently in parts of the contract, but for now we are hopeful that we have resolved their effort to completely exclude one group of our colleagues.
Counterproposals: They have finally been providing written counterproposals, including to our proposals on academic freedom and intellectual property. Both of those counterproposals claimed that the administration should be able to rewrite these policies unilaterally during the term of the contract, which is obviously not acceptable to us. We expected that the administration’s opening positions would be to continue to claim maximal control and flexibility in every area, since that is their substantive priority. But this is, at least, actually bargaining.
Tentative Agreements: We have tentative agreements (TAs) on two articles. The administration accepted our “separability” proposal (a standard contract provision that just says that if one part of the contract is determined to be illegal the rest of the contract will continue in effect) and we agreed to an article on “labor-management meetings” (which says that once we have a contract, the two sides will continue to meet regularly). This is progress, and we’re happy to be moving forward, but we remain frustrated that it has taken three months for the administration to agree to the most basic contract terms. Once we have tentative agreements on a full set of articles, all Pitt faculty union members will be able to read and vote on the contract, which will only go into effect if the full membership votes to ratify it.
Schedule of Bargaining: We proposed ten additional dates in June and July for further bargaining sessions, but the administration only agreed to meet twice. We continue to push them to meet more frequently so that we can make more progress.
Moving forward: We currently have proposals on the table on topics including Academic Freedom, Health and Safety, Grievance and Arbitration, Discipline and Discharge, Non-discrimination, Facilities and Support, Faculty Governance, and Intellectual Property, which we will continue discussing with the administration at our next meeting.
Reach out to a member of the Communication and Action Team (CAT) if you have any questions or want to learn how to get more involved. Our power at the bargaining table comes from all of you! If you don’t know who your CAT member is, email [email protected] and we’ll put you in touch with a colleague in your area.
In solidarity,
Your bargaining committee
We met with the administration on June 7 and June 22. We are finally making progress, although it is still much slower than we want. We’d like to meet with the administration more frequently so that we can make faster progress, but they have only agreed to meet twice in the next month. This pace of bargaining and the administration’s reluctance to agree even to simple articles indicates that we’ll need your support to get wins on tougher proposals around job security and pay as bargaining continues.
Falk School: It appears that the administration has backed off of its efforts to exclude the Falk faculty from the contract. Specifically, they are no longer demanding that every article in the contract include language excluding the Falk School, and their most recent counterproposal on who the contract covers drops the exclusion of Falk faculty. They may still seek to treat different groups of faculty differently in parts of the contract, but for now we are hopeful that we have resolved their effort to completely exclude one group of our colleagues.
Counterproposals: They have finally been providing written counterproposals, including to our proposals on academic freedom and intellectual property. Both of those counterproposals claimed that the administration should be able to rewrite these policies unilaterally during the term of the contract, which is obviously not acceptable to us. We expected that the administration’s opening positions would be to continue to claim maximal control and flexibility in every area, since that is their substantive priority. But this is, at least, actually bargaining.
Tentative Agreements: We have tentative agreements (TAs) on two articles. The administration accepted our “separability” proposal (a standard contract provision that just says that if one part of the contract is determined to be illegal the rest of the contract will continue in effect) and we agreed to an article on “labor-management meetings” (which says that once we have a contract, the two sides will continue to meet regularly). This is progress, and we’re happy to be moving forward, but we remain frustrated that it has taken three months for the administration to agree to the most basic contract terms. Once we have tentative agreements on a full set of articles, all Pitt faculty union members will be able to read and vote on the contract, which will only go into effect if the full membership votes to ratify it.
Schedule of Bargaining: We proposed ten additional dates in June and July for further bargaining sessions, but the administration only agreed to meet twice. We continue to push them to meet more frequently so that we can make more progress.
Moving forward: We currently have proposals on the table on topics including Academic Freedom, Health and Safety, Grievance and Arbitration, Discipline and Discharge, Non-discrimination, Facilities and Support, Faculty Governance, and Intellectual Property, which we will continue discussing with the administration at our next meeting.
Reach out to a member of the Communication and Action Team (CAT) if you have any questions or want to learn how to get more involved. Our power at the bargaining table comes from all of you! If you don’t know who your CAT member is, email [email protected] and we’ll put you in touch with a colleague in your area.
In solidarity,
Your bargaining committee
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