By SUSAN JONES
Two and a half years after Pitt faculty voted to join the United Steelworkers union, voting will begin today on the Union of Pitt Faculty’s first contract.
The union and the University reached a tentative three-year agreement on April 25, which, if approved, will cover nearly 3,500 tenured, tenure-stream and appointment-stream full-time and part-time faculty. Although most faculty outside of the medical school will be covered by the agreement, only those who signed union membership cards by the end of the day on May 1 can vote.
Ballots were to go out today via email to those who are eligible to vote. If you don’t receive a ballot today at the email address where you have gotten union updates, contact info@pittfaculty.org. Voting will be open until May 10. If the contract is ratified, it will go into effect on or around May 15.
The 94-page tentative agreement covers a lot of ground. The union has held two information sessions for bargaining unit members and one more is planned from 4 to 5:30 p.m. May 7. There is a summary of the contract and the full agreement on the Union of Pitt Faculty website. Here are some of the highlights.
Salaries
Each of the three years of the contract will vary considerably in how pay is calculated, including flat fee increases in years one and two for all covered faculty.
FULL-TIME FACULTY
2023-24: A $3,900 maintenance raise will be added to base salaries shortly after the contract is ratified. Members of the bargaining unit did not get raises in September 2023, unlike most staff and non-bargaining unit faculty, because negotiations were ongoing.
2024-25: A $3,140 maintenance raise will be added to base salaries.
2025-26: 2.5 percent raise
PLUS: All full-time faculty will get a one-time $5,000 ratification bonus — half paid within 60 days of ratification and half paid next May. This will not be part of base salaries.
But the single biggest change will be that most full-time faculty who make less than $60,000 a year — after the $3,900 and $3,140 raises are added in — will be brought up to that level. The union says 18 percent of Pitt faculty make less than $60,000.
The exception to this will be visiting instructors and lecturers without a terminal degree and Falk School faculty, both of whom will have a $50,000 minimum.
So what does this all look like as totals? Let’s take the median salary of natural sciences assistant professors in the Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences — $67,000.
2023-24: $67,000 base + $3,900 raise + $2,500 bonus = $73,400
2024-25: $70,900 base + $3,140 + $2,500 bonus = $76,540
2025-26: $74,040 base + $1,851 (2.5 percent of base) = $75,891
Anyone who joins the union also will pay 1.5 percent of their salary (including the bonus) in dues to the USW, once the contract goes into effect. None of the salary already earned this year before contract ratification would be subject to dues.
For the first year, that would mean for people on eight-month contracts, the dues would only be applied to the $3,900 raise and the $2,500 bonus (and then any paychecks they get in May and June).
In the case above, the dues for the second year would be $1,148; and $1,138 the third. The dues rate is set by the USW and is the same for all its members. Any increases to the dues have to go through a voting process.
Some faculty have said the flat fee raises instead of percentage increases means all faculty are not treated equally in the agreement (see story on reaction to the contract).
Melinda Ciccocioppo, a psychology faculty member and chair of the union’s communication and action team, said the flat raises are “a more equitable distribution of the money that's available. In line with what the bargaining survey said, the priority was raising pay for the lowest-paid faculty. The problem is that when you have small percent increases on small salaries, it ends up being essentially nothing.”
Raises for retention, merit, market and equity are at the sole discretion of each department and are not subject to bargaining.
Minimum raises for promotions between faculty ranks are set at $5,000 for librarians and for those moving from assistant to associate professor. The minimum for those being promoted to full professor is $7,500.
PART-TIME FACULTY
For part-time faculty, the agreement spells out minimum salaries per credit hour taught and raise percentages over the next three years. Part-time faculty also will get a one-time ratification bonus of $500.
Minimum per credit
Oakland campus: $2,500 (which if 12 credits are taught per semester equals the $60,000 minimum of full-time faculty)
Regional campuses: $1,875
Raises
2023-24: 4 percent
2024-25: 2.75 percent
2025-26: 2.5 percent
If the Board of Trustees approves a salary pool maintenance increase of more than 2.75 percent in FY25 and 2.5 percent in FY26, then part-time faculty will get the larger raise.
Benefits
For this fiscal year, faculty in the bargaining unit remained with the same health insurance benefits and premiums as the previous year as negotiations continued, while the rest of faculty and staff saw fairly dramatic changes. Two of the previous plans were merged into one and premiums increased an average of 6.4 percent.
With contract ratification, bargaining unit faculty will move to the same benefit plan as the rest of faculty for the coming year. For the 2024-25 fiscal year, there are only slight premium increases and hardly any plan changes (see related story), but bargaining unit members will see the increase the rest of Pitt employees got last year.
Starting in 2025-26, the agreement says Pitt can raise premiums up to 8 percent per year without having to renegotiate the contract. This is more than premiums have gone up annually over the past several years, but Tyler Bickford, who served on the union’s bargaining committee, said it is the first cap on increases that Pitt has had to follow. That number will be subject to negotiation in the next contract.
The union in its summary of the agreement also cited a new sabbatical-like program for full-time appointment-stream faculty; new sick leave protections and personal days for full and part-time faculty; and a new bereavement leave policy for full-time faculty.
Job security
Job security for appointment-stream faculty is the other issue that was ranked the most important in a survey of bargaining unit members.
The agreement says that after one appointment for full-time non-tenure-stream faculty and three terms for part-time their contracts will be automatically renewed as long as they are performing their job adequately and there is still work for them.
“The presumptive renewal is something that faculty across the country have been fighting for, for a long time,” Bickford said, “and very few contracts in higher education have language like this for non-tenure-track faculty, and even fewer have it for part-time faculty. … So getting this in our first contract is really a huge win.”
In addition, full-time tenure-stream faculty on eight-month appointments will be transitioned to nine-month appointments at the time their appointment term renews.
Other highlights
Academic freedom: The union says this is Pitt’s first enforceable academic freedom policy. It says: “Bargaining unit faculty members are entitled to full freedom from interference to conduct research in their academic fields and to publish their results, subject to adequate performance of their other academic duties.” It also says: “Bargaining unit faculty members are entitled to speak and write as private citizens, free from institutional censorship or discipline, but as scholars and educators they should at all times be accurate, exercise appropriate restraint, and show respect for the opinions of others.”
Shared governance: This agreement says it is not intended to limit the faculty role in governance as provided by University, school, regional campus, library, department and other academic unit policies and bylaws. Senate President Robin Kear said at the May 1 Faculty Assembly meeting that she believes Pitt’s shared governance system can continue in the manner it has operated over the past two years. This means working on items that are outside the contract when it comes to bargaining unit members and on all areas for those outside the bargaining unit.
Evaluations: While each school or unit must develop transparent criteria and guidelines for evaluation, the agreement specifies the student surveys (OMETs) will not be a sole or primary factor in determining that bargaining unit faculty member’s teaching performance was unsatisfactory.
Grievances: The agreement sets out a specific three-step process for resolving grievances. Bickford says this gets to the core of the contract. “None of the contract means anything without a real grievance procedure,” he said. “And throughout this process, there were a lot of things that the administration wanted to carve out from the grievance procedure. And so it's important that our grievance procedure does actually apply to the whole contract.”
Workloads: The development of workload policies is left up to the individual units or schools, which must have a published policy. In general, the normal teaching load for full-time faculty at the regional campuses will be no more than 12 credits per term or 24 credits per academic year; and nine credits per term or 18 per academic year for bargaining unit faculty members at the Oakland campus
No strikes: The contract says there will be no strikes, slowdowns, cessation of work, or interruptions of operations by bargaining unit faculty during the term of the agreement, and the University will have no lockouts.
Susan Jones is editor of the University Times. Reach her at suejones@pitt.edu or 724-244-4042.
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