Graduate student workers at Pitt are celebrating a victory they see as part of a national labor movement, but organizer Pat Healy is already focused on the challenges ahead.
“How can a union help defend [students] from the wave of transphobia and xenophobia that will be coming out of the White House this year?” Healy said. “That’s the scary question.”
In November, graduate student workers voted to unionize with the United Steelworkers, with 1,033 “yes” votes and just 28 “no” votes. According to union organizer Alison Mahoney, a doctoral candidate in theatre and performance studies, the outcome reflects years of organizing efforts and follows a months-long voting delay caused by the University.
“The University remained mostly neutral during our campaign, although they did delay our vote by several months,” Mahoney said. “We know they see our union efforts as a threat to the status quo.”
The University took over seven months to submit a list of eligible graduate students to the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board. The list was submitted after a rally outside the Cathedral of Learning on Sept. 10, allowing the PLRB to approve and schedule the election.
According to the Union’s website, the campaign began in 2017 and was fueled by long-standing concerns about low stipends, expensive health insurance and a lack of protections.
In a statement given to The Pitt News, the University said it “remains committed to supporting” graduate and professional students.
“We respected graduate students’ agency to undertake a unionization effort and followed the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board’s process and timing,” the statement read.
As the union begins the collective bargaining process, organizers express concerns about how a Republican-led administration and Donald Trump’s return to the presidency might challenge unions in higher education.
“A Trump presidency will mean a shift in priorities. We’re moving into another very dark area for the lives of a lot of folks on this campus,” Healy said. “While the Trump administration will have little direct power over [our union], I am extremely worried about grads at private universities that fall under the jurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Board.”
Avery Robinson, a third-year MFA student and union member, said she believes organizing and “being proactive in community efforts” should be a priority to sustain unionization efforts under the Trump administration.
“Nothing will change in these efforts except the specific policies the union is responding to,” Robinson said. “[Our] efforts were well underway in the past four years and will continue no matter who’s in office.”
While the University maintained an “official” stance of neutrality during the campaign, Healy believes its actions suggested otherwise.
“I would hesitate to say they’ve been neutral. Delaying is the number one strategy of union busters … This was not the timeline of a neutral party.” Healy said. “[Administrators] have been as quiet as they can be. I expect to see the admin drag its feet going into bargaining.”
In a statement following the vote count, the University cited its “great deal of experience working with unions” and said it would prepare for the collective bargaining process.
“While first contract negotiations can be complex, please know that we will come to the table in good faith and be there to support all graduate students throughout and beyond the process,” the statement read.
Mahoney said union members will soon receive a bargaining survey to provide input on the key issues they want to prioritize in their first contract with the university.
“It’s not even pay or teaching changes that I most look forward to, but it’s the treatment of grad school workers not as cheap, dispensable labor,” Robinson said.
Healy said union organizers are focusing on representing the needs of students who are parents, transgender students and international students.
“There are a couple of issues I know we’ll definitely all be united on,” Healy said. “That said, I think now is a moment of imagination. We all have an opportunity to imagine what a better workplace might look like.”
Union organizers experienced a narrow defeat in 2019, losing by just 39 votes out of nearly 1,400 cast. During that election, they filed a complaint to the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board, accusing the University of unfair labor practices.
“Despite what the University claims about their conduct last time around, they busted our union,” Healy said. “[In the 2019 election], We had clear villains in the administration … I’m very thankful they are off terrorizing other institutions instead of ours.”
Healy said the rise of remote work, which became more prevalent after the pandemic in 2020, created social isolation that made organizing much harder.
“Most of organizing a campaign like ours is about building social networks,” Healy said. “That’s a lot harder with grads spending a lot less time on campus now than they used to prior to 2020.”
The union’s success is part of a national wave of graduate labor victories, which Mahoney hopes will “inspire hope for better working conditions and stronger protections in higher education.”
“We are one of many landslide election wins for graduate labor over the last several years,” Mahoney said. “We are the future of higher education. Knowing that thousands of grads across the country are committed to making academia a better place makes me very hopeful.”