As the cost of living increases, service workers at Pitt are feeling “frustrated” and “disrespected” because they feel the University is not compensating them fairly and want the ability to change their wages in the future.

Over 400 Pitt service workers, including cleaners, housekeepers and grounds crews, are represented by SEIU local 32BJ and are in the process of negotiating a new contract with the University after their last one expired at the end of 2024. Workers are asking for higher wages, for paid time off and for Pitt to hire more workers but have yet to reach a deal because of new clauses added by Pitt into the contract concerning federal cuts to NIH grant funding.

Pete Schmidt, the Western Pennsylvania area union leader cited some “language challenges” as for why the bargaining has taken months. While the contract being negotiated gives service workers a raise, Pitt recently added a clause in the contract that would let it decrease worker’s wages if the University saw federal funding cuts, according to Schmidt.

“They’re afraid that if they get funding cuts, they’re saying they may not be able to pay people whatever we agree upon, and we’re saying that that’s just not doable for us,” Schmidt said. “We cannot have a question mark on the wage increases for the next three or four years.”

University spokesperson Jared Stonesifer said Pitt “is committed to bargaining in good faith and looks forward to reaching a mutually beneficial agreement.”

Through bargaining surveys sent by the union to union members, Schmidt said service workers want more paid time off so they can “rest, recuperate and be with their family.”

“A lot of people don’t understand that these jobs are actually very difficult on people, not just on their physical health, but on their mental health as well,” Schmidt said. “When you do that for decades, like a lot of our members have, that takes a significant physical toll on people’s bodies. So we are always trying to figure out ways to get some more time off.”

Schmidt said that Pitt has moved “considerably closer” to what the union is comfortable taking, but bargaining has been ongoing since the end of last year. The last contract, which expired on Dec. 31, was extended twice, with the last extension expiring on Feb. 28. More negotiations are scheduled for Feb. 25.

“We’ve had some language issues throughout the years, and so when we sit down and negotiate these contracts every three years, we end up talking about the same issues, and we think we have it fixed, and then that actually didn’t work,” Schmidt said. “I will give my hats off to Pitt for being professional and wanting to move this in the right direction. That doesn’t always happen with employers.”

Some service workers have been more critical of how the University navigates contract negotiations and treats them as employees.

Albert Simon, who has been a Pitt cleaner for four years, would like to see his wages on par with other universities in the area. According to Simon and long-time service worker Pam Rall-Johnston, Pitt service workers get $2 less per hour than service workers at Carnegie Mellon and Duquesne universities. A job posting for housekeepers at Chatham University pays $19 an hour, while a temporary cleaning position at Pitt pays $13 to $16 an hour.

“As cleaners and as people at the lower end of the totem pole, our wage was very much undervalued from the three largest universities in the area — CMU and Duquesne — paying their employees a higher wage for the same type of work,” Simon said.

Rall-Johnston, a floor finisher in Scaife Hall at Pitt of 33 years, said she feels her current wage doesn’t match the amount of work she or other cleaners do. 

“We finally thought we got up to a decent rate, to where we would kind of be at the standard but a little below, and then they just threw up in our lap a whole new conversation on an ultimatum that they want language to freeze us. And funding got weird under the new administration, which is a smack on the face. We used to be the highest paid in the city, and now we’re the lowest.”

Rall-Johnston said she is “frustrated” with how long the negotiations have taken and also hopes that Pitt won’t undervalue her and other cleaners’ work.

“It’s not like we just empty trash,” Rall-Johnson said. “We do a lot and we’re all running … way over our normal work days because we’re so shorthanded from not hiring. I have a second income in my house, but most people work two jobs and can barely make it. Single women with children are constantly struggling to keep up, and we just deserve better.”

Simon said the idea that a raise could be taken away from the workers if the federal government cuts Pitt funding is “scary.”

“The fear that we have as employees is the fact that if we enter into waters that have never been charted and we accept language like that, that we would be their first guinea pigs for not having possibly enough protection to protect ourselves with whatever would happen,” Simon said.

Simon, who works 16-hour days at his job at Pitt and is self-employed as a hairdresser, feels that Pitt is “willing to take advantage” of workers due to staffing challenges. 

“We are understaffed in the cleaning department, which causes you to have to pick up additional work and put your own work in the rear,” Simon said. “The jobs are designed for you to be able to put your time in so that you could make your area look good, but many times you’re pulled to have to do one or two other areas that are not being done. It lowers your morale and brings your workforce down.”