From https://pittnews.com/article/167927/featured/pitt-faculty-vote-to-form-union-by-wide-margin/ When the UO faculty voted to unionize, I think we the third AAU to do so. Pitt is now the 5th. [I think , let me know if I got that wrong.]
Faculty union organizers ran on a number of issues, ranging from health benefits to academic freedom. Some of the campaign’s highest priorities included improving pay, job security and transparency between the administration and faculty.
The COVID-19 pandemic brought greater attention to these and other issues. Some faculty have questioned Pitt’s commitment to shared governance and expressed concern for their safety with the return to in-person learning. Pitt also froze salaries in 2020 and included a 1.25% progressive pay raise in this year’s budget, a change that some faculty said was not enough.
Of course like UO, the University of Pittsburgh’s administration had plenty of money to spend on anti-union lawyers:
Over the course of the union campaign, the University declined to take a formal stance on a desired outcome of the election. Pitt has paid over two million dollars to Philadelphia-based “union avoidance” law firm Ballard Spahr between 2016 and 2020, which union organizers had called “shameful.”
Will the UO union survive it’s transition to being without Cecil?
What will our new overlords represent?
My thoughts. Focus on consistent across the board raises, and regular promotion/merit raises which are on 3-6 year cycle so they merit/promotion bumps mean something (instead of the committee fighting about a 1.5 percent merit pool).