Steelworkers host a union rally at the University of Pittsburgh

Beneath the towering Cathedral of Learning on Thursday evening, a high-energy crowd rallied to celebrate the University of Pittsburgh staff members filing for Pennsylvania’s largest public-sector union election in decades.

The Pitt workers joined the Allegheny/Fayette Central Labor Council and United Steelworkers District 10 to host the event, with ACLC President Darrin Kelly serving as emcee. The union would be part of the Steelworkers.

More than a hundred people, decked out in pro-union gear, gathered in Schenley Plaza to show solidarity with the Pitt workers and chant along with a full slate of speakers — ranging from members of other local unions to Mayor Ed Gainey. The rally, which began with a singalong led by the Pittsburgh Labor Choir, was an interactive family affair. Several workers and supporters brought their children and their dogs, so barks and cries permeated the passionate speeches and chants.

The rally comes during the Pennsylvania House-designated statewide Union Organizing Week, which kicked off Monday morning with a bang, as Pitt staff filed the paperwork to hold a union election with the Department of Labor and Industry in Harrisburg. 

As United Steelworkers District 10 Director Bernie Hall pointed out in his remarks, even the proclamation naming the Organizing Week wasn’t without controversy, as 64 state representatives voted no. “We championed Organizing Week because it’s our way of saying, ‘You know what, out here in Pennsylvania, we hold the line. This is a union state.’”

If a majority of the workers, who number about 7,000, “vote yes,” as the rally participants chanted, the National Labor Relations Board will certify the union. But Hall and the other speakers refused to say “if” when referring to the upcoming election, speaking about the potential union formation as a certainty. 

“[The union’s] gonna raise the standard of living for everyone,” said Pitt lab research manager and organizer Jen Goeckeler-Fried. She added in an interview that during her 29 years of work at Pitt, she’s seen benefits such as different retirement plans and health care options steadily erode. 

“My boss tried to get me promoted, and he really felt like I deserved it,” she said. “I’ve been here a long time, I do a lot. I mean, I won a Department Impact Award, and you know, it didn’t come with any money. But somebody in HR who doesn’t know me, doesn’t know what I did, basically said, ‘You have to have a Ph.D. to get promoted.’ Well, in 29 years, I could have had four or five Ph.D.s.”

The staff members who would form the potential union are spread among Pitt’s five campuses in Western Pennsylvania, and they serve as administrators and researchers as well as advisers and educators for Pitt’s undergraduate student body of nearly 20,000.

The group includes Dave Fraser, who works as a scholar mentor at Pitt’s Frederick Honors College. To explain the need for a union among Pitt’s staff, he pointed to what he views as one of the most “egregious examples”: staffers who needed to get a master’s degree in library science from Pitt in order to work as a librarian but now don’t make enough money to pay back those loans. With a union, Fraser said, Pitt would have to “put its money where its mouth is” and ensure that these workers are paid enough to keep up on their loans.

A common argument is that tuition raises would accompany unionization, but Fraser doesn’t see it that way. Now, staff members regularly leave Pitt to take other, better-paid opportunities at other institutions, leaving those who remain to take on excessive responsibilities. It’s in the students’ best interest as well, he said, when staff stay in their positions and get paid fairly, and a union would require tuition to be distributed to make this happen.

“That’s part of [unionizing],” Fraser said. “Building a stable community of staff that would then serve the students right. So, they can say, ‘Ah, the students are gonna pay for it.’ No, they’re gonna benefit from it.” Already, he added, he’s gotten to meet more people and form connections through the union process.

Pitt’s faculty is already unionized as of 2021 and will continue meeting with the University’s bargaining committee this month to negotiate an initial agreement. However, during this process, the university spent over $3 million on payments to “union avoidance” law firms such as Ballard Spahr.

This move is part of a recent groundswell of support for labor rights, on a local, statewide and national level. Graduate student workers from Philadelphia’s Temple University ended a six-week strike in March, emerging with some major victories — namely, pay raises and expanded parental and bereavement leave allowances. Starbucks workers at seven locations in Pittsburgh participated in a daylong strike in March, alongside more than 100 other cafes across the country. 

Just down the road from Pitt are Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, where workers of the United Museum Workers union ratified their first contract — with a 98% approval vote — just a few weeks ago. Rally speaker Shawn Watrous, who co-chaired the bargaining committee for that contract, said that while it wasn’t the “idealistic document” of the first draft, the ratified version enabled workers who had previously been paid only $8 an hour to double their rate.

“You are now part of a movement rolling through our nation, and each success, each vote to form a union, each contract that is ratified builds the strength of American workers like you,” Watrous said, addressing the Pitt staff members.

The Writers Guild of America went on strike in early May, as a response to concerns about the way streaming affects pay rates and the threat that artificial intelligence could pose to writers. 

The five unions of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette are in or nearing their eighth month on strike. The trade unions walked off the job when the PG refused to pay a contractually obligated $19 increase per week per employee for health care, followed by the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh, who went out on an unfair labor practice strike. 

As Maren Cooke, a member of the Pittsburgh Labor Choir, who sang classic union songs at the rally said, “It means we have a lot of gigs.” 

One of the final speakers of the evening was Gainey, who emcee Kelly said “never, ever, ever forgets who he is or where he comes from.” 

“The question that I love when people ask is why should we have unions? Because the response is simple: why not? Why should we have unions? Because at the end of the day, we need pay that matches inflation and more,” Gainey said, met with cheers from the crowd. “It starts with the people, and the people need their money in order to move an economy forward.”