By SUSAN JONES
Efforts to establish a graduate workers union at Pitt took a big step forward last week when the University sent a list of eligible graduate students to the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board and the United Steelworkers.
The move came just over seven months after the union organizing committee, which is being represented by the USW, filed what it said was a “supermajority” of authorization cards on Jan. 31.
On Sept. 10, graduate workers gathered for a rally in the Cathedral of Learning Commons Room to demand Pitt’s administration submit the eligibility list. Later that same day, the University submitted the list to the PLRB, but in a statement said, “As it is early in the term and appointments are still being processed, there may be additional names added to the list as we move forward with the PLRB process.”
The statement from Pitt went on to say, “As the University shared in recent months, we respect graduate students’ agency and self-determination to undertake a unionization effort, and we are following the PLRB’s process. We will continue to work with the United Steelworkers and PLRB as we move toward an election.”
The PLRB’s process to approve an election has not been quick with the two other recent unionizations efforts on campus. Staff union organizers submitted signature cards in June 2023 and the election wasn’t approved until July 2024. Voting began Aug. 15 and ended Sept. 19. Results are expected next week.
The Union of Pitt Faculty submitted its authorization cards in January 2019. After several hearings to resolve a dispute between Pitt and the union on the size of the bargaining unit, the faculty didn’t vote to form a union until October 2021.
Graduate workers are hopeful that the PLRB will set election dates soon for this fall, said Alison Mahoney, a member of the union organizing committee and a Ph.D. student in theatre arts.
All teaching assistants, teaching fellows, graduate student researchers and graduate student assistants are eligible to be in the union. Unfunded grad students, grads on external fellowships, and grads on training grants are ineligible because they are not directly employed by the University.
Mahoney said some of the key issues for the union are better pay and health insurance.
“Grad student pay has not kept up with inflation,” she said. “We make far below a living wage in Pittsburgh. Many grad students don’t have access to funding over the summer.”
Changes last fall to grad student workers’ health insurance, which brought dramatic increases in deductibles and co-pays, “was a huge catalyst for our movement, with grads sort of seeing how precarious we are and how subject to the whims of the administration our current situation is without a (union) contract,” Mahoney said.
“Grads are really angry that they were not consulted in those changes,” she continued. “With a graduate worker union, the administration would not be able to make those kinds of changes to our working conditions without bargaining a new contract with us first.”
Other issues that Mahoney said a union might address are:
-
More assistance with visa fees and costs of relocation for international grad workers.
-
A grievance procedure for grad workers who face harassment or unsafe working conditions.
“I think we’ve just made it really clear over the last year and a half that grads are really willing to stand with each other, stand in solidarity, and show the University that we are stronger together,” Mahoney said. “And I think the several hundred people that we’ve managed to turn out to many rallies on campus is a really strong indication that grads are ready to be treated the way that we deserve to be treated.”
The last campaign to form a grad union with the USW began in February 2017, and an election was held in April 2019. The union organizers fell short of the majority needed by 37 votes. The union later claimed that the University used unfair labor practices during the election. The PLRB ultimately decided nearly two years later that these practices did not sway the election outcome.
In that earlier effort, the University took an active position against graduate student workers unionizing, which it does not appear to being doing this time.
Susan Jones is editor of the University Times. Reach her at suejones@pitt.edu or 724-244-4042.
Have a story idea or news to share? Share it with the University Times.