By SUSAN JONES
Pitt graduate student workers, who last tried to form a union under the United Steelworkers banner in 2019, have filed for a union election with the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board.
Organizers said that they received union authorization cards from a “substantial majority” of 2,100 grad workers to file with the PLRB on Jan. 31 for an election. All teaching assistants, teaching fellows, graduate student researchers and graduate student assistants are eligible to be in the union, according to the union website, but unfunded grad students, grads on external fellowships and grads on training grants are ineligible because they are not directly employed by the University.
Nearly 200 people came to a rally on Jan. 30 at the Cathedral of Learning to deliver a letter to Chancellor Joan Gabel’s office — after some confusion about which door her office was behind — asking for “voluntary recognition” of the union. This would mean Pitt accepts the signed authorization cards as proof of the grad workers’ desire to unionize rather than going through an election process.
Gabel was not present at her office during the rally, but her executive assistant gave the group a letter from the chancellor in response:
“Thank you for reaching out to me. I’m sorry to not be able to receive your petition this afternoon, as I am attending previously scheduled off-campus meetings and engagements. I want to take this opportunity to convey how vital graduate students are at Pitt, as well as my sincere appreciation for all you do to make our University such an incredible place. I also want you to know that I respect your agency and self-determination to undertake this effort and look forward to continuing our important engagement in the days ahead.”
Duncan Riley, a second-year graduate student in the history department, was one of the speakers at the event. Beforehand, he said grad student workers “would like to have a greater voice in the decisions that affect us at work, whether that's about our stipends or health care … and we see a union as the best way to achieve that.”
Organizers started a card-signing campaign in October, in the wake of complaints about changes to student insurance plans that added a deductible and increased co-pays for some services. At the same time, the University increased stipends for graduate students with appointments by 4 percent and set the minimum pay for graduate students with full-time appointments at $10,000 per term.
If the University does not voluntarily recognize the union, then Riley said he hopes “for a neutral and free and fair election process that respects the rights of all graduate workers to make this decision for themselves.
“We have a strong and broad majority of cards from across the University from a wide diversity of disciplines and departments,” Riley said.
“I’ve spoken to hundreds of graduate workers all across this campus who are doing really vital research and teaching work,” he said. “I myself teach, and I love my students. I think the work we do is vital to this University, and I hope that we can come together and win our union and bargain for a fair contract.”
After presenting the letter at the chancellor’s office, the rally moved outside the Cathedral, as planned, but the exit was expedited by a fire alarm that sounded while the group gathered in the hall outside Gabel’s office.
A spokesman for the University said the cause of the alarm is under review. The building was promptly evacuated, and responders determined there was no fire or other threat. The Cathedral was reopened within 15 minutes.
Previous grad student union attempts
The last campaign to form a grad union with the USW began in February 2017, and an election was held in April 2019. The union organizers fell short of the majority needed by 37 votes. The union later claimed that the University used unfair labor practices during the election. The PLRB ultimately decided nearly two years later that these practices did not sway the election outcome.
The push by grad students to unionize joins efforts by staff, who filed in June 2023 to hold an election to join the United Steelworkers. No date has been set for that election. Faculty, excluding those in the School of Medicine, voted in October 2021 to unionize and are currently negotiating their first contract with Pitt.
The University has publicly taken positions on the faculty and staff union elections that it respects the rights of workers to decide, but struck a different note in 2018 on graduate students.
A website set up in 2018 about graduate student unionization made the Pitt administration’s position very clear: “The University is not in favor of graduate student unionization because we do not believe that having a graduate student union would help us provide the best educational opportunities for our students.”
Other than Gabel’s statement last week, Pitt has made no comments about the most recent grad union push.
Grad union organizers have set up a website, pittgradunion.org, with more information. A University spokesman said Pitt, “is committed to keeping our students up to date throughout the process and will use a variety of communications channels to ensure they have the information they need. No determination about a dedicated website has been made at this time.”
Other grad unions
In the past 10 years, several graduate student worker unions have been certified at universities throughout the U.S., primarily at private schools. The public schools on this list include Indiana University, Bloomington and the University of Minnesota, where Joan Gabel was president before coming to Pitt last year as chancellor. Both unions are part of the United Electrical Workers.
At Minnesota, the union election took place in April 2023, shortly after Gabel announced she was coming to Pitt. It was the sixth grad student union election since 1974. The union represents more than 4,100 graduate assistants — of those, 2,487 voting in favor of the union and 70 against. Negotiations are ongoing for the group’s first contract.
At Temple University — one of the four state-related universities, along with Pitt, in Pennsylvania — graduate student workers first organized in 1997 and are a part of the AFL-CIO. The Temple University Graduate Students’ Association, which represents around 700 people, went on strike last January for about six weeks. The new contract raised minimum pay for graduate student workers to $24,000, effective immediately, and to $27,000 by 2026.
Susan Jones is editor of the University Times. Reach her at suejones@pitt.edu or 724-244-4042.
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