University Times

"The Case for and Against Faculty Unionization" will be the theme of the fall meeting of the full University Senate, Oct. 18 at 3 p.m. in Frick Fine Arts Auditorium.

Making the case for a faculty union will be two officers of the United Faculty group that is seeking to organize Pitt faculty: UF President Mark Ginsburg, of the education school, and UF Treasurer Philip Wion, of the English department.

Arguing against faculty unionization will be Gerald Massey, director of Pitt's Center for the Philosophy of Science, and English professor H. David Brumble.

In April, UF leaders launched a campaign to get eligible faculty members to sign cards authorizing the United Faculty to represent them in collective bargaining. If at least 30 percent of those 2,300 full- and part-time, non-medical faculty sign cards, UF will petition the state labor relations board to hold a secret ballot election here. If more than 50 percent of voting faculty were to support the United Faculty in an election, UF would win the right to represent non-medical faculty in collective bargaining.

The UF lost Pitt's last faculty union election in 1991 by a vote of 1,243-719.