6,300 University of Pittsburgh staffers gain chance to join Steelworkers union

For University of Pittsburgh staff who watched as 3,400 faculty colleagues gained collective bargaining rights a few years back, what’s coming in the mail soon represents their own moment of choice.

The Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board will oversee another union election at Pitt. This time, it’s for 6,300 staff.

Ballots for the monthlong voting will be mailed Aug. 15. They will ask eligible staff in Oakland, as well as Pitt-Greensburg, Pitt-Johnstown, Pitt-Bradford and Pitt-Titusville if they want to join the United Steelworkers, said Jess Kamm, a union spokeswoman.

The union has said the potential bargaining unit includes advisers, researchers, scientists, library and technology specialists, accountants, educators, designers, counselors and administrative professionals. The Steelworkers also represents faculty on the five campuses.

Among those who will be voting is Kathleen Madonna-Emmerling. As senior development associate in Pitt’s Division of Philanthropic and Alumni Engagement, she promotes medical and health sciences endeavors at Pitt and UPMC.

Madonna-Emmerling, 45, commutes from Moon and said she loves her job, which pays $26 an hour. But after health insurance for her family, taxes and other costs including $22 a day to park in Oakland are factored in, she said she clears about $18,000 a year.

Madonna-Emmerling said she and other Pitt staff want more transparency in pay and promotion decisions, as well as other aspects of their workplace environment, including job security.

“Whenever I speak to older colleagues, they’re concerned that, at any moment, they can be replaced with someone younger and cheaper,” she said. “There’s really no seniority or tenure protections, and that’s a concern for people reaching the end of their career.

“We just want to be seen, be heard, be appreciated in a substantive way,” said Madonna-Emmerling, who is a volunteer on the union organizing committee.

Pitt has 34,000 students and 15,000 employees. Among them are more than 8,000 staff, though some already are represented by other unions or are not eligible.

A vote to organize staff at such a large employer as Pitt would not only help it retain talent, but it also has implications for workers and employers elsewhere in the region.

“It would really force other people to match us if they want to have talent,” Madonna-Emmerling said. “And that is incredibly exciting to me.

“It’s been a long time coming,” she said of the planned vote. “A lot of people have worked very hard to get to this point.”

Asked to comment on the upcoming election, Pitt spokesman Jared Stonesifer referred a reporter to a university human resources web page under the heading “Why You Should Vote” as well as a question-and-answer post.

“We cannot express enough the importance of your vote because the election will be decided by a simple majority of eligible employees whose votes have been cast,” the web page states. “If an employee does not vote, someone else’s vote will decide for them.”

“We strongly believe that the University of Pittsburgh provides an excellent workplace and is guided by a foundational model of shared governance, which is predicated on input from all constituents, including our staff,” James Gallaher, vice chancellor of Pitt’s Office of Human Resources, previously has said.

This year, 3,400 faculty members on the five Pitt campuses secured their first labor pact with Pitt, which runs through June 30, 2026.

It was ratified in May and includes provisions for greater job security for full- and part-time contract instructors. It yields longer appointments, promotion minimums and a smoother renewal process for nontenure stream faculty among other protections, union officials said. It also set a $60,000 salary floor for full-time faculty.

The deal followed sometimes acrimonious bargaining. Faculty had voted in 2021 to join the Steelworkers.

Meanwhile, about 2,000 graduate student workers at Pitt are mounting another effort to join the Steelworkers, after a drive four years earlier fell less than 40 votes short in an election.

The staff organizing effort at Pitt dates to 2021. Organizers had to have at least 30% of the members of the potential bargaining unit sign cards, indicating they were in favor of the election drive. The card drive met and exceeded the threshold, Kamm said.

By June 2023, the United Steelworkers declared its intent to file paperwork seeking a state-supervised labor election.

Pitt offers employees a tuition benefit, which has served as an incentive over the years for staff to stay, even if they are among the lower paid.

“I can benefit from children who will be able to attend Pitt. I have a 16-year-old, a 14-year-old and an 11-year-old,” Madonna-Emmerling said. “But that is really behind the times. People are having children much older or not at all. If we want young talent and we want them to stay, that education benefit isn’t doing the work it used to do.”