Dear colleagues,
Greetings from your newly formed USW-Union of Pitt Faculty Bargaining Committee!
Thank you to everyone who filled out the bargaining survey. Tomorrow our contract negotiations begin in earnest, and we will meet with the administration again in late April. As we move forward, we wanted to update you on what we’ve been able to accomplish so far.
Your Bargaining Committee includes part-time, full-time non-tenure-stream, tenure-stream, and tenured faculty from across the university. We have been working with the Council of Representatives (COR), the Communication and Action Team (CAT), and the USW legal and strategic teams as we begin the process of negotiating a strong contract for Pitt faculty.
We met with the administration for a preliminary bargaining session on March 14, where we addressed a few immediate issues:
Going forward:
Our strength at the bargaining table comes from you. The more we can demonstrate that we have the faculty’s support, the more leverage we have in negotiating strong improvements in our contract. So to win the strongest contract for everyone, we need your help:
We are excited about working together to win improvements for all faculty in our first contract.
In solidarity,
Your Bargaining Committee
Greetings from your newly formed USW-Union of Pitt Faculty Bargaining Committee!
Thank you to everyone who filled out the bargaining survey. Tomorrow our contract negotiations begin in earnest, and we will meet with the administration again in late April. As we move forward, we wanted to update you on what we’ve been able to accomplish so far.
Your Bargaining Committee includes part-time, full-time non-tenure-stream, tenure-stream, and tenured faculty from across the university. We have been working with the Council of Representatives (COR), the Communication and Action Team (CAT), and the USW legal and strategic teams as we begin the process of negotiating a strong contract for Pitt faculty.
We met with the administration for a preliminary bargaining session on March 14, where we addressed a few immediate issues:
- Interim grievance procedure: We proposed an interim grievance procedure with binding third-party arbitration so that we all have a transparent and predictable channel for resolving disagreements that arise while bargaining is ongoing. We are waiting on the administration’s response.
- “Status quo”: Since we voted in October to unionize, the administration now has a legal obligation to bargain in good faith over changes to our pay, benefits, and working conditions. We have heard from faculty across the university that existing efforts to make improvements have been put on hold by the administration because of their duty to bargain. We gave the administration a list of ongoing improvements that we believe can continue to move forward through the existing faculty governance process. The duty to bargain is an important right that we gained when we voted to unionize and protects us against retaliation, but many improvements can and should continue to be made while bargaining is ongoing. If you have been told that a planned improvement in your area must be put on hold because of the union vote, please reach out to your COR representative to report that to the bargaining team.
- COVID: The administration had intended to eliminate all masking requirements as early as last week with no intention of getting input from faculty. We brought them to the bargaining table on March 14th and insisted they need a plan to protect at-risk faculty and their families, and we offered ideas for what that plan could look like. We are awaiting their response. The USW legal team is working with individual faculty who have reached out for support getting accommodations approved. Please contact your COR representative if you have been denied accommodations or have experienced retaliation as a result of an accommodation request.
- Communication: We are committed to keeping you updated about the bargaining process. We will report regularly to the elected Council of Representatives and we will send updates to faculty through the Communication and Action Team. We have requested that the administration "whitelist" email messages from the bargaining team and USW to your pitt.edu addresses, so that they are not filtered as spam. The administration has denied this request. For now, to ensure that you receive our official bargaining updates you’ll need to sign up to receive messages by (text PITTFACULTY to 47486) and/or personal email.
Going forward:
Our strength at the bargaining table comes from you. The more we can demonstrate that we have the faculty’s support, the more leverage we have in negotiating strong improvements in our contract. So to win the strongest contract for everyone, we need your help:
- Share this update with your colleagues! This email may have been caught in their spam filter. For easy reference, you can also find this information on our website HOME (pittfaculty.org).
- Encourage your colleagues to sign up for text and email messages so they don’t miss future updates.
- Join the CAT! Help facilitate two-way communication between your colleagues and the Bargaining Committee, to help you and your colleagues stay informed about bargaining and to keep us informed about the issues that matter to you.
We are excited about working together to win improvements for all faculty in our first contract.
In solidarity,
Your Bargaining Committee
|
