On January 21st, after months of negotiations, our Union and the administration signed an interim agreement formally called a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). The purpose of this MOU is to resolve certain issues that may arise in the period between the union election and the ratification of a first contract. All of the topics covered in the MOU are still subject to negotiation as part of our contract. By negotiating this MOU, our Union has cleared a path for resolution of a number of important and urgent issues currently affecting staff, including promotional pay increases, equity increases, and supplemental pay. The administration is already working on processing and resolving many of these cases; however, there is a significant backlog, so it may take time. 

If you believe you're impacted by one of the issues covered under the MOU and your supervisor is not resolving the issue, please let us know by emailing staffunionofpitt@usw.org.

You can read the full text of the MOU here.

“Bargaining Unit” refers to all employees represented by the union and covered under the collective bargaining process.

Since we won our union, all Pitt Staff are now part of the bargaining unit. That means you have protections, including the right to union representation in disciplinary meetings, and protections against unfair, unilateral changes by the administration such as changing your pay or benefits. The university now has a legal obligation to negotiate these changes with our union.

Managers and supervisors are not eligible to be in the bargaining unit and will not be represented by the union or covered under the contract.

Under Pennsylvania law, the university was required to sort staff into two lists: Professional and Non-Professional. There is very little guidance on how these groups should be defined – it is not simply determined by job class or degrees held.

We believe the university’s approach to creating these lists doesn’t actually reflect any meaningful distinction between the two groups, so the USW plans to keep both groups together as a single local union and negotiate for both the “professional” and “non-professional” groups together.

If you received a ballot for the union election, you are most likely in the bargaining unit. If you have been hired since the election and are not in a supervisory role, you should be in the bargaining unit.

Even though the University supplied the list of eligible voters, they later made challenges to their own list, claiming some people are actually in supervisory roles. We are working through many of these on an individual basis to clarify and ensure all eligible bargaining unit members are in the unit. 

If this is you, please report it to us by filling out this form.

If you believe the University made a mistake by not putting you on the eligible voter list, let us know by filling out this form.

Unfortunately, we’ve heard this a lot – and it’s part of why having a union is so important!

Once we have a contract, it will help provide greater transparency and a clearer process for promotions and job changes.

If you believe you’ve been misclassified as a supervisor but don’t actually have supervisory responsibilities or your job has changed from a supervisory position to non-supervisory and you want to make sure you’re included in the bargaining unit, please fill out this form.

Starting in early 2025, you’ll be able to sign your union card and officially become a union member! Signing your membership card is critical to helping us win a fair contract because it shows the administration our solidarity and strength in numbers.

Only union members, those who have signed a union card, will be able to vote on our contract and elect union officers.

Look out for more info on cards from our Communication & Action Team (CAT) and on the text system. You can sign-up to get texts by texting: pittstaff to the phone number: 47486

“Status quo” is a legal term that means the university can’t make certain types of changes on their own without consulting with our union. We’re currently working with the administration to address several instances where we believe they’ve inappropriately claimed something can or cannot be changed because of their obligation to maintain the “status quo” and to bargain with them regarding changes during the period we are negotiating our first contract. Check out our bargaining updates for the latest in these negotiations.