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T h e i n d e p e n d e n t s t ude nt ne w spap e r of t he U niversity of Pittsburgh | PIttnews.com | September 19, 2019 | Volume 110 | Issue 26
PLRB ORDERS Presidential candidate SECOND GRAD Amy Klobuchar packs Stack’d UNION ELECTION Janine Faust Editor-in-Chief
A Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board official has determined that the University committed unfair labor practices which affected the outcome of April’s graduate student union election. The official has ordered a new union election, according to a Wednesday press release from United Steelworkers. Hearing Examiner Stephen Helmerich said in his ruling that Pitt committed “coercive acts” leading up to the April vote, which was meant to determine whether or not graduate students at Pitt should unionize and join the Academic Workers Association of the United Steelworkers. The outcome of the vote was 675 for and 712 against. Pitt’s anti-union actions included intimidation and misinformation, according to the release. These included creating the impression through emails that the University was keeping specific track of who voted and spreading false information about what the potential union could bargain for. Helmerich said these methods “potentially affected a large enough pool of eligible voters for the effect on the election to be manifest due to the extreme narrowness of the result.”
The crowd to see Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., speak spilled out of Stack’d and onto Oakland Avenue Wednesday night. Hannah Heisler senior staff photographer
Rachel Romac
For The Pitt News
Sen. Amy Klobuchar entered Stack’d Burgers and Beer with a strong smile and wave, to chants of “Amy! Amy! Amy!” from the bar area and the sidewalk next to the restaurant. On a warm fall Wednesday night, Pitt students, faculty and members of the public packed the tables and sidewalks — and See Grad Union on page 3 spilled out onto the sidewalk at the corner
of Forbes and Oakland avenues — to hear Klobuchar, D-Minn., make her pitch to become the next president of the United States. Klobuchar is one of 20 Democrats currently running for president. Pitt College Democrats President Grace DuBois, who organized the visit, said she and her organization have worked hard over the past two weeks to bring Klobuchar to Oakland. She received an email from Klobuchar’s
campaign on Sept. 6 about hosting an event for Pitt students. “The process was a little more complicated than we had hoped,” DuBois said. Requests to reserve space for an event on campus must be made at least 21 days in advance — but the College Democrats had only 12 days to put together Klobuchar’s visit, requiring the move to an offcampus location. Though she’s polling at See Klobuchar on page 3