USW collects faculty signatures to authorize Pitt union election

Efforts to organize academic workers across the University of Pittsburgh are entering a new phase as the United Steelworkers begins an authorization card campaign covering some 4,000 full- and part-time faculty on the region’s largest campus.

Professors and other supporters plan to rally at noon Monday in the William Pitt Union ballroom to announce their drive to get faculty signatures on those cards, indicating they want the union to represent them.

At least 30 percent of the potential bargaining union must sign cards for the union to petition the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board for an election. In practice, unions typically gather substantially more than that percentage before filing.

The Academic Workers Association, part of the United Steelworkers, is involved in both the faculty effort and a near-simultaneous drive covering about 2,000 graduate student workers at Pitt whose duties relate to teaching and research.

Last month, that group petitioned state labor officials for an election. Union leaders noted that more than half had signed cards. That does not guarantee those individuals would vote “yes” in an election but is considered a strong indicator.

The faculty campaign announced Friday would cover tenured, tenuretrack and non-tenure adjunct faculty, officials said. Organizers have a year to collect signatures.

“There’s a lot of momentum in the community because of the success of the graduate campaign,” said Paul Johnson, an assistant professor of communication who is part of a campaign organizing committee. “It seems there’s a real sense of consciousness about the precarity of academic labor.”

Issues for those workers include pay and job security, along with academic freedom and more shared governance at Pitt. Workplace climate including protections from harassment also has been raised as an area where workers want representation, USW representatives have said.

Pitt officials offered no immediate comment Friday. The university, however, provided a link to a 23-page report of various published salaries for fulltime employees, including faculty, in fiscal year 2016.

For instance, within the Arts and Sciences, Pitt’s largest academic area, the report indicated a mean classroom salary in humanities ranging from $39,348 for instructors to $134,624 for a full professor. Within humanities, the classification of lecturer/ other encompassed the largest share of individuals, and they had a mean salary of $44,470, according to the report.

The Pitt Faculty Organizing Committee, the campus entity that is discussing with professors the possibility of forming a union, has a website that includes testimonials from a number who support the drive.

Mr. Johnson said there are adjunct faculty paid per course whose incomes are easily as low as $17,000 a year.

In 2012, the USW announced a push to align with campus workers across Pittsburgh. So far, it represents 300 adjunct faculty at Point Park University and 430 at Robert Morris University.

About 80 adjunct faculty in liberal arts at Duquesne University approved a union, too. Duquesne, however, is challenging the election.

The campaign at Pitt includes the main Oakland campus as well as campuses in Bradford, Greensburg, Johnstown and Titusville. Mr. Johnson said it remains to be seen whether faculty in the School of Medicine would be part of the bargaining unit.

Organizing at Pitt began two years ago.