Pitt faculty members vote to join United Steelworkers

Faculty members across the University of Pittsburgh celebrated the end of a five-year organizing drive Tuesday with the announcement that they had won a vote to become members of the United Steelworkers union.

Officials said preliminary vote results indicated 71% of the eligible faculty members who cast ballots in the election conducted by the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board voted to organize with the USW.

“This result has been a long time coming, but it was worth the wait,” said Tyler Bickford, an associate professor in the university’s English department. “It’s a good feeling to know that we as faculty members have finally achieved what all workers deserve — a voice in the decision-making process that affects our lives on the job.”

Some 3,300 full- and part-time faculty members at Pitt campuses in Oakland, Johnstown, Greensburg, Titusville and Bradford are covered by the new bargaining unit that includes both part and full-time faculty. The Pitt School of Medicine is not part of the new bargaining unit.

The union vote breaks new ground in labor relations for the faculty and administration at Pitt, the city’s oldest university and one of its largest employers.

Officials at Pitt said the union vote will not affect the university’s commitment to excellence.

“We have always maintained that this is a faculty matter and a faculty decision and are evaluating next steps,” an administration spokesman said in an email. “While the formation of a faculty union may change how our community works together, it will not change our longstanding commitment to partnering with faculty members to advance their pursuits of excellence in teaching, scholarship and research.”

Marian Jarlenski, a faculty member in the Graduate School of Public Health, said members of the organizing committee put in thousands of hours of work into the five-year effort.

“We believe in shared governance and working to make Pitt even better,” Jarlenski said. “I think we want to maintain Pitt’s excellence in research and teaching.”

“This vote was successful because these workers know that this decision will make the university a better place for the entire community,” said USW International President Tom Conway. “When academic workers have a seat at the table, it results in a better environment for teachers, for students, and for everyone who calls Pitt home.”

USW, which represents a total of about 850,000 workers in more than a dozen industries, previously organized adjunct faculties at Point Park and Robert Morris universities. It has represented 7,000 employees at the University of Toronto since 1998.