Melissa Catanese
STUDIO ARTS
 During these recent unprecedented times, I support the union because standing together we have a better chance at ensuring that the voices of faculty and staff are not left behind in the decision making process, particularly those voices most vulnerable among us.
Ricardo Vila-Roger
Theatre arts
Can we imagine what our lives would be without unions? ​The five-day work week, child labor laws, employer-based healthcare coverage, FMLA… these are just a few of the many things that unionized workers have done to make our way of life better and of what can be achieved when workers collaborate.
Marian Jarlenski
 school of public health
I support a faculty union at Pitt because I believe a union will help us to work together to advance our scholarship, teaching, and service.
Daniel Hatfield
 LINGUISTICS - ENGLISH LANGUAGE INSTITUTE
I support the union because people everywhere should have a say in the forces that shape and impact their lives.
Laura Lovett
HISTORY
I came to Pitt from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, the most unionized university in New England. We had a faculty and librarian union (MSP-MTA), a professional staff union (PSU), a graduate student union  (GEO-UAW) and an undergraduate union (the Resident Assistants Union, UAW 2322).
Jaclyn Kurash
 GERMAN
​I’m from Pittsburgh and come from a union family. My family was conscious of the rights of others, of disparities in how people are treated along lines of gender, class, and race, and the role unions can play in equalizing those relationships.
ALEX DRAGON
Falk Laboratory School
LECH HARRIS
English, University of Pittsburgh
Chris Deluzio
school of LAW
​My hometown of Pittsburgh is a union town through and through.  ​But the struggles that brought the labor movement to where it is today were uniformly met with resistance, and that's still happening.
Jeff Shook
SOCIAL WORK
Unions provide workers with a voice, secure democracy in the workplace, and place checks on administrative power. It’s been argued that universities are different from other employers and have no need for unions. This is just not true.
Mark Adkins
BIOENGINEERING
As an adjunct professor in the Swanson School of Engineering, I support union representation for three key reasons: 1) fair pay, 2) improved benefits, and 3) a voice in our university. 
LAUREN COLLISTER
Faculty Librarian, University of Pittsburgh
GEORGE LEIKAUF
Public Health, University of Pittsburgh
Daniel Normolle
 Biostatistics
​The current model of university management, in which increasing numbers of junior faculty are employed on a contingent basis without opportunity for promotion or even job security, is creating a race to the bottom for the next generation of academics.
Mary Ann Caton
HISTORY AND POLITICAL SCIENCE, PITT TITUSVILLE
. . . I believe that leaving a union behind can be our legacy to other Pitt faculty, to give them some leverage over how they are treated by the university.
Ross Kleinstuber
JUSTICE ADMINISTRATION & CRIMINOLOGY, JOHNSTOWN CAMPUS
Unionized workers earn, on average, $10,000 more per year than non-union workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Mary Elizabeth Rauktis
SOCIAL WORK
Through our unionization effort, I hope that professional development for NTS faculty will come to be treated as a real priority at the University of Pittsburgh.
JERRY DICKINSON
Law, University of Pittsburgh
LAURA LOVETT
History, University of Pittsburgh
Lori Jakiela
English and Creative Writing, Pitt-Greensburg
A union can give voice to people who feel silenced. It can ensure clear lines of communication from the administration on down. It can do what unions have always done: protect the people who make an institution and a workplace shine.
John Beverley
 Hispanic Languages and Literatures
Unionization is a way to address these issues for both T/TS and non-tenure stream faculty. The prospect of unionization puts pressure on administration to address urgent concerns.
Gurudev Dutt
Physics and Astronomy
 I believe a faculty union will be an important first step...
Ruth Mostern
History
I support the union because I believe that amplifying and concentrating workers’ voices is always worthwhile, and because I trust that the Union of Pitt Faculty will improve conditions, compensation, and transparency for me and for all academic labor at Pitt.
KURT SUMMERSGILL
Dental Medicine, University of Pittsburgh
Russ Phillips
Psychology, Pitt-Greensburg
Job security.  Fair pay. Due process.  Administrative transparency. Truly shared governance. These are my reasons for supporting a union. 
Mrinalini Rajagopalan
History of Art and Architecture
I support the Pitt Faculty Union for three reasons. First, unions are quite simply the extension of democracy into the workplace; second, research and teaching excellence are compatible with providing equity for all faculty across ranks; third, when universities undermine academic labor, they perpetuate anti-intellectualism and damage our larger mission of sustaining scientific inquiry and critical reasoning.
William Scott
English
 If we organize ourselves to speak together, as one voice, these basic goals would be within easy reach.
Gunduz Caginalp
MATH
It is clear that a union will benefit Pitt faculty. What is less obvious is that it will also benefit teaching and scholarship. 
CARL REDWOOD
Social Work, University of Pittsburgh
Lauren Collister
University Library System
The faculty union can help us not only with bargaining power for the conditions of our employment, but also by fostering greater and deeper connections to our colleagues across the University.​
Scott Smith
History
My career path and life experience have given me the advantage of knowing the value of union contract, and of a strong union: I grew up in a household where unionism was the closest we came to anything like religion. 
Melinda Ciccocioppo
Psychology ​
I support the union because, without it, we have no power to influence the administration to enact changes that will benefit our faculty, our students, and ultimately our institution.  Solidarity is our greatest strength.
Claudia Davidson
LAW
Having represented unions for the past three decades, I know firsthand how much better off employees are when they are in a union. Beyond having their interests better represented, union workers become more effective employees as well as co-workers to each other.
RACHEL BEZANSON
Physics and Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh
Luke Peterson
Religious Studies
I excel as a teacher; I am an active writer. I work hard every day to make sure that my classroom is a challenging, open, and engaging environment.

But, despite all of my successes, I do not have a permanent place at the table at the University of Pittsburgh.
anupama (anu) jain
Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies
​Faculty unions should be a no-brainer-- as in, we need them. They are not a panacea for all ills, obviously, but what is?
Jennifer Lee
ENGLISH
Teaching at Pitt means a great deal to me. I deserve to be paid equitably for the work I do, to have the terms of my employment articulated clearly and applied fairly. I hope for a work life in which I can continue to move and grow. These are things I want for myself and for my colleagues.
Tyler McAndrew
ENGLISH
I would support a faculty union at Pitt because it could provide stability for myself and other teachers who are caught in similar positions. I would support a faculty union because I love my job, but each year, come December, or come May, I worry that I will find myself without one.
CHRIS CONNABOY
Sports Medicine and Nutrition, University of Pittsburgh
Kathy Neiswanger

DENTAL Medicine
Over the years, it has become clear to me that we do not have a real voice in many basic workplace issues, such as salary equity or appropriate workload expectations ...
David Marshall
COMMUNICATIONS
​From the point of view of non-tenure-stream or adjunct faculty, the arguments in favor of a Pitt faculty union are overwhelming and clear. 
Ward Allebach
​Geology and Environmental Science
​Unions have gotten a bad rap in recent years. People have all-but-forgotten why they are here and what they have accomplished: to protect the rights of people who are being over-worked and under-paid by management who consider them replaceable. 
Tim Maddocks
ENGLISH
I’ve hope that a faculty union could allow for university management to see me as more than a simple cog in their class scheduling. I have hope that things can change.
DEB POLK
Dental Public Health, University of Pittsburgh
Kavi Joseph Abraham
POLITICAL SCIENCE
Perhaps it's unsurprising that the university is reconstituting itself on the model of a corporation. But then the university must accept that its scholar-teachers are workers whose lives must not be lived on the margins nor in constant uncertainty. A union is the only thing that helps get that message across.
Patrick Cooper
Math - University of Pittsburgh; Physics - Duquesne University
Without the security of a contract that has been negotiated by the faculty, acting as a collective unit to ensure the health and well-being of our institution, I don’t see a bright future for academia.