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Another AAU university goes union

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.”

One Comment

  1. thedude 10/19/2021

    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).

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