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(Media inquiries should be addressed to info@pittfaculty.org)

Faculty show support for unionization

MADELINE GAVATORTA  | Staff Writer | January 23, 2018
Pitt News
Jennifer Lee, a senior English lecturer at Pitt for the last two decades, said it was luck and allies in the tenure faculty that got her the job she currently holds — and she remembers realizing how privileged she was compared to faculty who don’t have those benefits.

“My very good friend and colleague — who I worked with almost that whole 20 years, who did the same work that I did — had trouble getting promoted, had trouble rising to the same rank that I am even though we had done exactly the same work,” Lee said.

Lee spoke about her experiences at the faculty union’s Card Campaign Kickoff Monday, which took place from noon to 1 p.m. in the William Pitt Union Ballroom. Assistant professor Paul Johnson of the communication department said the union initiative was born in August 2015, a few months after the grad students had started organizing, and has since advanced.

Read more


United Steelworkers start drive to organize full- and part-time faculty at Pitt

BILL SCHACKNER |  Jan 19, 2018  |  9:32 PM
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
bschackner@post-gazette.com
Ef­forts to or­ga­nize ac­a­demic work­ers across the Univer­sity of Pitts­burgh are en­ter­ing a new phase as the United Steel­work­ers be­gins an au­tho­ri­za­tion card cam­paign cov­er­ing some 4,000 full- and part-time fac­ulty on the re­gion’s larg­est cam­pus.
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Pro­fes­sors and other sup­port­ers plan to rally at noon Mon­day in the Wil­liam Pitt Union ball­room to an­nounce their drive to get fac­ulty sig­na­tures on those cards, in­di­cat­ing they want the union to rep­resent them.

Read more

United Steelworkers strikes adjunct faculty contract with Robert Morris
Jun 6, 2017, 1:15pm EDT Updated Jun 7, 2017, 8:57am EDT
by Stephen Caruso, Intern, Pittsburgh Business Times

United Steelworkers struck its latest victory Tuesday in its fight to unionize Pittsburgh’s professors.

In a release, the USW announced it had reached a contract agreement with Robert Morris University to cover its adjunct faculty — made up of about 430 part-time faculty.  
The contract should increase the average total salary paid to adjuncts by 20 percent. For the lowest-paid adjunct — a teacher with a master’s and five years experience — their pay will increase by 29 percent by the end of the contract, from $2,100 for a three-credit course to $2,703 over the course of the three-year deal.

The deal also included provisions to increase sick leave and job security for adjuncts — such as preserving their workload from semester to semester.
USW International President Leo Gerard commended the university for striking the deal, and hoped the contract would lead to better outcomes for the university’s 5,199 students.
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“Adjunct faculty are the backbone of higher education today, and we’re proud to have helped them win a level of security and respect far more appropriate to their calling as teachers and scholars,” Gerard said in a statement.

Read more at bizjournals.com


​Duquesne, don’t appeal NLRB decision

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; post-gazette.com
April 18, 2017 12:00 AM
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As a graduate of the Duquesne University School of Law, I am ashamed of my alma mater for failing to recognize and collectively bargain with adjunct faculty at the McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts (“Duquesne Must Now Recognize Adjunct Faculty Union,” April 12).

The law school tells prospective students that they “will be trained to a high degree of professional skill with a special sensitivity to ethical and moral concerns.” Duquesne had the opportunity to stop a five-year legal battle and show respect for the invaluable contributions of adjunct faculty members. They failed.

Duquesne is making the wrong legal decision to appeal the National Labor Relations Board ruling, and they are making the wrong ethical and moral decision. The NLRB has had jurisdiction over Duquesne since 1982, and should continue to exercise its jurisdiction. This lengthy legal fight has nothing to do with being a religious institution. It is an excuse for wanting to continue to pay adjuncts poverty wages.

Read more at post-gazette.com


Pa. state faculty strike highlights need for support

After months of disagreement and failed negotiations, the faculty of Pennsylvania’s 14 state-supported universities will go on strike starting today.

The Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties President Kenneth Mash confirmed the unprecedented strike will likely go on after breaking down overnight concessions in the midst of a media blackout.

The strike will bring a halt to the education of the state system’s 105,000 students, forcing professors to cancel classes and push back tests. But more importantly, it highlights the need for support among our faculty and value their work as educators.

Read more at the Pitt News...

N.B., the strike began on October 19 and ended on October 21.
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Pitt unionization campaigns look forward to upcoming year

Though it’s been nearly a year since Pitt faculty and graduate students first whispered plans to form labor unions, both groups have yet to take the first formal step of sending out voting cards to see if forming a union is feasible.

But that’s because both campaigns are still continuing to spread the word about their efforts and garner faculty interest in the unions, a crucial step before sending the cards.

Read more at the Pitt News...


Labor groups celebrate unionization efforts at local colleges

Labor organizers, university professors and college students gathered Monday afternoon in Schenley Park for a picnic hosted by United Steelworkers Local 3657, its organizational arm, Fight Back Pittsburgh, and United Students Against Sweatshops, Local 31.

Read more at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette...
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Unionization Drive Launched
Assistant professor Campbell, graduate student employee Hillary Lazar and undergraduate Kai Pang expressed their support for union representation during the Jan. 26 news conference.
Said Campbell: “We think our union can achieve four major goals for faculty and other workers in the Pitt community: fairness; job security; transparency; and workplace justice.

“The purpose of this University is teaching and research. We, alongside our graduate employee colleagues, are the workers who fulfill this purpose."

Read more at the University Times...

Pitt faculty and graduate student employees formally announced Tuesday morning their plans to start a campaign to form multiple labor unions.
Partnering with United Steelworkers, an organization that has helped Point Park University and Robert Morris University unionize, faculty and graduate student representatives announced at a press conference on Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. that their campaign was officially underway.

USW has been organizing two separate campaigns for the faculty and graduate employees at Pitt, but Tuesday marked the launch of both groups’ efforts.

Read more at PittNews.com
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Campaign to organize thousands of faculty, grad workers at Pitt underway
A campaign to organize 5,000 faculty and almost 3,000 graduate employees at the University of Pittsburgh is now officially underway, its kick-off occurring at an Oakland news conference today just off the sprawling state-related university.

The United Steelworkers is coordinating efforts with two campus groups hoping to form two separate bargaining units within the Steelworkers, one for adjuncts and tenure-stream faculty at Pitt and the other for graduate workers there.

In the Pittsburgh region, the USW so far has organized adjuncts at Point Park University and Robert Morris University, as well as Duquesne University, though that school continues to challenge the union, citing the Catholic university's religious mission.
The drive at Pitt will include both the main Oakland campus and the university's branch campuses at Bradford, Greensburg, Johnstown and Titusville.

Speakers at the news conference, including some individuals hoping to join the bargaining units, cited issues including fairness, job security, transparency and workplace justice as key themes of the effort.

Read more at post-gazette.com...


USW to try to organize Pitt faculty, grad students
The United Steelworkers union Friday announced plans to try to organize faculty and graduate student employees at the University of Pittsburgh and its branch campuses. Spokeswoman Maria Somma said “hundreds” of Pitt employees have contacted the Pittsburgh-based international union seeking representation. The union has scheduled a news conference for Tuesday to discuss the organizing campaign.

​Ken Service, Pitt's vice chancellor for communications, declined to comment. “University professors, adjunct and full-time, are organizing all around the country,” Somma said. Faculty are organizing to make sure their voices are being heard by college and university administrations and their issues are being addressed at the bargaining table, she said.

Read more at TribLive.com...

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