BARGAINING UPDATE
May 12, 2022
Dear Colleague,
We have been hard at work since our last bargaining update. We have now had five contract bargaining sessions with the administration. During those sessions, we have presented eleven written contract policy proposals on topics such as health and safety, academic freedom, and faculty governance. In the typical bargaining process, the administration would present us with written counter proposals and we would go back and forth until we came to a mutual agreement. For example, when USW-affiliated faculty at Robert Morris University were five sessions into bargaining their first contract, the administration had presented nineteen written proposals. By contrast, Pitt’s administration has presented us with only one written response. We entered into these negotiations with the hope that the administration would share our goal of quickly and efficiently negotiating a contract that would be beneficial for faculty as well as our institution. Sadly, it appears this is not the case.
In their sole written proposal to us, the administration proposed excluding over 600 faculty from the bargaining unit; stripping them of the protections and benefits our contract would provide (reach out to a member of our Communication and Action Team for more details on who the administration proposed excluding). The labor board has already ruled on which faculty should be included in the bargaining unit, and the administration agreed to their inclusion just last year. Changes to the bargaining unit would require approval by the labor board. Unfortunately, the administration has described this as a “threshold” issue to further negotiations. This is despite the fact that it is unlawful for them to refuse to bargain anything else in favor of haggling over the unit. It is difficult to imagine a charitable interpretation of this behavior.
We will continue to offer responsible, lawful, evidence-based proposals, and to give the administration every opportunity to engage with this process in a similarly constructive spirit. We will continue to stand together against any attempts to divide us. But we will need your help to show the administration that they must do better than they have done so far.
For more information, get in touch with a member of our Communication and Action Team in your area. If you don’t know who that is, you can email [email protected].
In solidarity,
Your Bargaining Committee
Union of Pitt Faculty, United Steelworkers
Tyler Bickford
Nicholas Bircher
Lauren Collister
Rekha Gajanan
Lech Harris
James Hill
Haitao Liu
Sabrina Robinson
Valerie Rossi
Evan Schneider
Paul Wesley Scott
Jeff Shook
Matthew Stumpf
Stacey Triplette
Abagael West
We have been hard at work since our last bargaining update. We have now had five contract bargaining sessions with the administration. During those sessions, we have presented eleven written contract policy proposals on topics such as health and safety, academic freedom, and faculty governance. In the typical bargaining process, the administration would present us with written counter proposals and we would go back and forth until we came to a mutual agreement. For example, when USW-affiliated faculty at Robert Morris University were five sessions into bargaining their first contract, the administration had presented nineteen written proposals. By contrast, Pitt’s administration has presented us with only one written response. We entered into these negotiations with the hope that the administration would share our goal of quickly and efficiently negotiating a contract that would be beneficial for faculty as well as our institution. Sadly, it appears this is not the case.
In their sole written proposal to us, the administration proposed excluding over 600 faculty from the bargaining unit; stripping them of the protections and benefits our contract would provide (reach out to a member of our Communication and Action Team for more details on who the administration proposed excluding). The labor board has already ruled on which faculty should be included in the bargaining unit, and the administration agreed to their inclusion just last year. Changes to the bargaining unit would require approval by the labor board. Unfortunately, the administration has described this as a “threshold” issue to further negotiations. This is despite the fact that it is unlawful for them to refuse to bargain anything else in favor of haggling over the unit. It is difficult to imagine a charitable interpretation of this behavior.
We will continue to offer responsible, lawful, evidence-based proposals, and to give the administration every opportunity to engage with this process in a similarly constructive spirit. We will continue to stand together against any attempts to divide us. But we will need your help to show the administration that they must do better than they have done so far.
For more information, get in touch with a member of our Communication and Action Team in your area. If you don’t know who that is, you can email [email protected].
In solidarity,
Your Bargaining Committee
Union of Pitt Faculty, United Steelworkers
Tyler Bickford
Nicholas Bircher
Lauren Collister
Rekha Gajanan
Lech Harris
James Hill
Haitao Liu
Sabrina Robinson
Valerie Rossi
Evan Schneider
Paul Wesley Scott
Jeff Shook
Matthew Stumpf
Stacey Triplette
Abagael West
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