By SUSAN JONES
Staff members throughout Pitt began receiving emails this week from the United Steelworkers and organizers for the Staff Union of Pitt that said they were on the eligible voter list for the Pitt staff union election.
The emails also said that Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board has informed the union that balloting will begin in August.
A USW spokesperson said, “While we don’t have a formal direction of election, the PLRB has given us a rough timeline. We also received confirmation from the PLRB that they accepted the list the administration provided stating who will receive a ballot.”
Organizer filed cards in June 2023 with the PLRB seeking a union election. Chancellor Joan Gabel said in a recent interview that the administration’s stance is, “We meet people where they are,” whether through unions or through shared governance.
Faculty union update
The Union of Pitt Faculty, which approved its first contract in May, has elected its officers, and all three are from the Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences.
Tyler Bickford, a professor in the English department who also headed the union’s bargaining committee, will serve as president. Marcy Pierson, a teaching associate professor in the Department of Music, was elected griever, who manages all of the ongoing grievances between union members and the administration. Melinda Ciccocioppo, a teaching associate professor in the Department of Psychology who has chaired the union’s communication and action team, will serve as secretary.
Faculty in the bargaining unit — nearly 3,500 tenured, tenure-stream and appointment-stream full-time and part-time faculty — got their maintenance pay increases for the 2023-24 academic year in their June paychecks. They had not received raises in September 2023 when most of Pitt staff and non-bargaining unit faculty did. Full-time faculty who were hired before July 1, 2023, received a one-time payment of $3,900, while part-time faculty got 4 percent of their salary.
The contract also included a ratification bonus for faculty who were in the bargaining unit as of May 10, 2024 — $5,000 for full-time faculty and $500 for part-time. In a separate payment on July 3, full-time faculty received half of the bonus (the other $2,500 will come in May 2025) and part-time faculty received their full bonus.
“Generally, moving forward communication and decision-making about union business will happen during membership meetings, which have already begun,” Ciccocioppo said.
Faculty in the bargaining unit can sign a membership card at any time. All faculty in the bargaining unit are subject to the terms of the approved contract, but only members can vote on the contract and participate in membership meetings. Members also pay dues of 1.5 percent of their salary to the United Steelworkers, of which the faculty union is a part.
Neither the union or the administration would say how many people have joined the union.
Find more information at www.pittfaculty.org or by emailing the union at info@pittfaculty.org.
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