The Pitt News
T h e i n de p e n d e n t s t ude nt ne w spap e r of t he University of Pittsburgh | PIttnews.com | january 22, 2019 | Volume 109 | Issue 87
FACULTY FILES FOR UNION ELECTION
SATURDAY IS FOR THE GIRLS
Emily Wolfe
Assistant News Editor University of Pittsburgh faculty filed for a union election with the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board on Friday, with the aim of forming a union that would cover more than 3,000 faculty members across Pitt’s five campuses. According to a Friday press release from United Steelworkers, which is aiding the unionization effort, the organizing faculty wants more academic freedom and transparency from Pitt’s administration and hopes to address “concerns about pay and job security for adjunct and part-time faculty.” Since last January, the Pitt Faculty Organizing Committee has collected confidential, signed union cards from approximately 3,500 full- and part-time faculty. If the University agrees to the terms of the filing, it will provide the PLRB with a list of the card filers, which the Board will use to verify at least 30 percent of eligible faculty and staff have signed cards. The PLRB will then work with both parties to determine a date for a union election. If an election is held, a majority of Pitt faculty must vote in favor of unionization in order to form a Union of Pitt Faculty. The union would be affiliated with the Academic Workers Association, a division of United Steelworkers. Joe Miksch, a University spokesman, said in an email the University was aware of the filing. “While we review the petition, we strongly encourage faculty members to thoroughly discuss the unionization process and share accurate information about the pros and cons involved,” Miksch said. “The University, for its part, will remain dedicated to supporting our faculty members and their diverse interests regardless of how this issue evolves.” The move comes more than a year after Pitt’s grad students filed their own petition with the state labor board in December 2017. Pitt disputed the petition, and negotiations are ongoing. Pitt faculty have attempted to unionize before, most recently in 1996, when organizers were unable to gather cards from a majority of faculty members.
Participants at this year’s Pittsburgh Women’s March rallied under the theme of “Building Bridges: Stronger Than Hate. Sarah Cutshall | visual editor
PITTSBURGH HOSTS THIRD WOMEN’S MARCH Neena Hagen and Stefan Bordeianu The Pitt News Staff
On a freezing January morning in downtown Pittsburgh, 10-year-old Sofia Rinaldo from Shadyside stood amid a dense, enthusiastic crowd of marchers underneath the arches of the City Council Building. She was there for the same reason as many others. “I hope I make a difference,” Rinaldo said. The third annual Pittsburgh Women’s March on Saturday didn’t command a crowd like last year’s, which drew an estimated 30,000 marchers, but an estimated 1,000 still showed
up with the same goal as Rinaldo. The marchers wore pink hats, carried baby Donald Trump balloons and held colorful signs with a variety of political slogans. Many politicians, including several candidates for local office this year, attended the march. Rep. Conor Lamb, D-Pa., said he chose to attend the march to support the women who helped him in his campaigns. “I’m here to honor the people who helped me get elected. When you look out there, you see the foot soldiers of my two campaigns last year,” Lamb said. “They were the women in suburbs
organizing on their own and knocking on doors on cold days like today.” Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald said those efforts paid off when Democrats flipped the U.S. House of Representatives in November. “Last year, [Democrats] flipped more than 40 seats in the United States Congress — Connor Lamb flipped two seats,” Fitzgerald said to applause from the crowd. “We elected more women, including the first two African-American women in suburban districts in Allegheny county.” One marcher took a jab at President Donald Trump with a sign that read See March on page 2