Pittsburgh Adjunct Faculty Votes to Join USW

USW President Leo W. Gerard called upon the college to engage the adjuncts fairly:

The adjunct instructors have spoken very clearly with this vote. Now it’s time for the Point Park administration to work with them to craft a fair collective bargaining agreement that provides the faculty with the benefits and basic protections that all workers deserve.

Sharon Brady, who has taught theater arts at Point Park for more than a decade, echoed Gerard:

I am looking forward to working with the administration, with the support of the USW, to enhance both the adjuncts’ experience and their effectiveness for the students they serve.

The University has expressed support for the adjunct faculty and suggested it intends to bargain with them, which is a sharp contrast from how Point Park has dealt with its full-time faculty union.  In 2004, the full-time faculty voted to join Newspaper Guild-CWA’s Pittsburgh local but the college refused to recognize the vote or negotiate with the faculty and a case is still pending before the NLRB.  The college claims that the full-time teachers are management and thus aren’t eligible to be in a union.

Michael A. Fuoco, president of the Pittsburgh Guild, called on the University to finally negotiate with the full-time faculty:

The vote by adjuncts means that a majority of everyone who teaches at Point Park University has voted to be represented by a union. Since the university plans to acknowledge the adjunct union and to enter into collective bargaining, we call upon the university to do the same with its full-time faculty.

Tim Schick, the Guild’s administrative director and head of organizing concurred:

With the university’s entire faculty now unionized, it is time for the school’s administrators to uncover their ears and listen to the voices of its employees.

 

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This has been reposted from the AFL-CIO.

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