By SHANNON O. WELLS
The Schenley Plaza tent by Pitt’s Oakland campus was abuzz with pro-union spirit on June 8, when Pitt staff and United Steelworkers union representatives gathered with state and local dignitaries to mark the filing for what’s being called Pennsylvania’s largest public sector union election in decades.
Alongside lawmakers including Reps. Sara Innamorato and Abigail Salisbury, and Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey, the Staff Union of Pitt labor rally celebrated University workers organizing with the United Steelworkers (USW) and filing on June 5 with the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board (PLRB) in Harrisburg for a staff union election.
Co-hosted by USW District 10 and the Allegheny County Central Labor Council, the June 8 event bookended the state Union Organizing Week that kicked off with a June 5 rally in the state Capitol rotunda featuring a busload of Pitt staff members and USW representatives.
On the heels of the Union of Pitt Faculty forming a bargaining unit in 2022 to engage in contract negotiations with the University administration, Pitt staff members are organizing to seek “transparency in opportunities for advancement, competitive pay and secure benefits, among other desired improvements,” a USW statement said. The staff union signature drive kicked off in September 2021, and more recently, a staff union website was set up.
Among the speakers at the June 8 rally, Jen Goeckeler-Fried, lab manager and research specialist in the Department of Biological Sciences, said while staff union organizers are “excited” and “so proud to be joining the ever-growing labor movement that’s happening all across this country right now,” some people “still don’t get it.”
After years of researching treatments for conditions like kidney disease, cystic fibrosis and Alzheimer’s disease while also teaching, mentoring and training more than 120 “scientists of tomorrow” in student research, Goeckeler-Fried said she was astonished to learn her Pitt salary is “barely more” than what U.S. News & World Report listed as the average starting salary for 2023 college graduates.
“Those years of service and loyalty to the University is not (reflected) in my paycheck, and that is not OK with me,” she said to rumbles of disapproval from those gathered at Schenley Plaza. “And I know I’m not alone. … My colleagues and I on the organizing committee have had a lot of conversation with a lot of staff, and time after time after time, the same issues (arise) … How many of you think that we deserve fair pay for the hard work that we do? How many of you think that our benefits should be guaranteed and contracts (written) so that can’t be taken away from us?
“Benefits come in many forms. For some people, it may mean child care. For others, it may mean having a chance at getting a parking space sometime before you retire,” she quipped. “It can also mean having raises that actually keep up with inflation.”
Acknowledging the work and cooperation unionizing will require, Goeckeler-Fried said, “We know we all have to work together. We need to learn about the issues that are important to share the message of hope and benefits that a union will bring.”
Growing voices
Momentum toward a staff union was gaining steam last fall, when there were approximately 8,000 Pitt employees classified as full-time staff. Not all would be covered by the union.
While the Union of Pitt Faculty bargaining unit represents roughly 3,500 faculty, the University currently has around 800 union-affiliated employees — from police to drivers to maintenance and cleaning staff, but excluding supervisors and postdocs — represented by separate unions. The union needs signatures from at least 30 percent of eligible staff to request an election.
Although a staff union bargaining unit has yet to form, the University administration in the coming weeks, “will review the next steps under the PLRB process and work to fully understand the proposed bargaining unit,” Pitt spokesman Jared Stonesifer said. “Once a bargaining unit is determined — often an iterative process — we will also share informational updates with staff,” on a University-created staff unionization website.
Who is and isn’t in the bargaining unit was a major issue in the faculty unionization effort. Neither the union or Pitt is saying how many of the University’s 8,000 staff members would be included in the bargaining unit.
In a statement shared in between the two staff union rallies, James Gallaher, vice chancellor for human resources, said, “We have a long history of working effectively with unions and respect the right of our employees to decide whether or not to choose a union. We strongly believe that the University of Pittsburgh provides an excellent workplace and is guided by a foundational model of shared governance, which is predicated on input from all constituents, including our staff.”
Emilee Ruhland, web and media specialist at Pitt’s Center for International Studies, has been involved in staff union organizing for about a year. After attending the June 5 Harrisburg rally, she feels good about the direction of the staff union drive.
“I think the efforts are going terrifically,” Ruhland said on June 8, estimating that 15 to 20 staff members were among the busload of USW representatives that traveled from Oakland to Harrisburg. “And we filled the rotunda steps at the Capitol, which was really just a great experience. It was a fantastic way to just kind of show how many voices we had.
“I was really excited to be there alongside a bunch of people from a variety of different units across Pitt,” she said, adding she’s “really, really confident” the required 30 percent threshold of interested staff has been met or surpassed. “I think the cards we submitted (at the state Capitol) were a huge portion of what we needed to do to move on to the next step.”
Maintaining an underclass
At the June 8 campus rally, state Rep. Abigail Salisbury (D, District 34 in eastern Allegheny County), who taught a First Amendment law class at Pitt after completing her law degree, recalled asking her students how much they thought she earned to teach as an adjunct instructor.
“Now, the average guess was about 25 grand per semester to teach a class,” she noted. “The real answer is $1,000 a credit hour. So I was getting $3,000 for a whole semester’s work. They were shocked at that. They couldn’t believe that.”
Salisbury wondered how many parents writing tuition checks and students taking on “mortgage-level amounts of debt” realized that while “these instructors here … are talking about diversity, equity, and inclusion principles in your classrooms,” Pitt “is also maintaining an underclass of individuals who do not get the equitable treatment. They do not feel included, because the University is trying to maintain (a staff-based underclass).”
When what Salisbury described as an “unassuming gentleman” stepped out of the darkness wearing a “dark trench coat” to ask her about joining a union, “it sounded like a good deal because I had been going to mandatory unpaid trainings for adjuncts,” to hear of new requirements like providing a private location for students to make up a missed test: “ ‘So, come on down to Swissvale to my conference room in my solo law practice office and take your test!’ That’s not weird,” she said facetiously, drawing hearty laughter from the audience.
Noting that she stayed on teaching at Pitt one semester beyond when she really wanted “in order to vote for the union,” Salisbury concluded her remarks by thanking those at the rally “for all the work that you’re doing for this.”
Also at the Oakland rally, Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey thanked the USW “for what you’ve done through decades and decades of organizing and creating unions so that people have a right to be able to fight for their rights,” he said. “You’ve done it for generations. And right now I just want to say thank you.”
The former 24th District House member praised his “Harrisburg colleagues” for approving the Union Organizing Week resolution and for their “continuous fight.”
“I just want to say that Harrisburg, I know how … well, I’ve never been in the majority, so I don’t know how that feels,” he joked. “It must feel mighty good to be in the majority, and I just want to say thank you to each and every one of you. It means a lot to see you here. To the 64 (lawmakers) that voted against it, I can’t even comprehend what that’s about. It’s everybody here that’s connected to Pitt that’s fighting.”
Gainey said he relishes the common question of why unions are necessary, “because the response is real simple: ‘Why not?’ Why should we have unions? Because at the end of the day, we need pay that matches inflation and more. That’s one of the reasons why we need unions.
“If we (aren’t) able to sit down at a table and negotiate a contract that says that is what we deserve, then we’re not doing nothing but keeping yesterday alive — the status quo approach,” he added. “If we’re going to move an economy, it starts with the people, and the people need their money in order to move an economy forward. That’s one reason why we need unions.”
No worker left behind
State Rep. Sara Innamorato (D, District 21, in Etna, Millvale area) noted during the June 8 rally how the union labor movement was borne of the steel industry that made Pittsburgh famous. “But it’s also infamous for the fall of that industry. And with it the union power across sectors.
“As our economy has transitioned from steelmaking to ‘eds and meds’ over the past decades, we’ve seen how the economic growth in these sectors has not trickled down to all workers,” she said to shouts of “No!” from the crowd. “And to that we say, ‘No more.’
“So Pittsburgh, from its industrial roots to a thriving tech, health care and education center, this city has been built by and run by the dedicated hands, and minds, of workers,” she added, “and every single worker (should have) the ability not just to thrive in their workplaces, but to thrive in their lives. And every single worker deserves a union.”
Innamorato also praised the USW for showing “time and time again that you are committed to the generational shifts of our economy and organizing new and emerging sectors to make sure that no worker is left behind.”
“Let us not forget that this progress does not come without its challenges,” she said. “But this is the first step of many towards a union contract. We have heard that the administration at Pitt will stay neutral, and I know that everyone here is gonna hold them accountable.”
Shannon O. Wells is a writer for the University Times. Reach him at shannonw@pitt.edu.
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