Pitt’s graduate student union is currently bargaining with the University to reach their first contract, including a fight for more livable wages and raises that were left out of stipends.
Pitt graduate students received an email in mid-July stating that unionized Pitt staff and graduate students would not be receiving cost-of-living raises or pay increases to accommodate inflation. Graduate students like Alison Mahoney, a member of the Pitt Graduate Student Union’s organizing committee and a sixth-year theater and performance studies PhD candidate, say their current stipends do not accommodate the cost of living.
“I shouldn’t be having to put things as simple as groceries and gas to get around on credit when I teach Pitt students. I think I provide a valuable service to the University, and so do many of my colleagues, and we’re not being compensated fairly,” Mahoney said.
Mahoney said the administration alleged that salaries could not be adjusted due to ongoing negotiations, a claim Mahoney says is untrue.
“They are allowed to make those adjustments legally. That would be done under what’s called an MOU, [or] a memorandum of understanding,” Mahoney said.
Lauren Wewer, chair of the graduate student bargaining committee and a fourth-year material science engineering PhD student, claimed the University is “dragging its feet” on proposed graduate student raises that have been the precedent in years past.
“This is effectively a 3% reduction in pay. We always get these increases, and suddenly this year is the one time they’re not giving us this raise. It’s really hurting a lot of grad workers,” Wewer said.
University media did not comment when asked why graduate students did not receive a cost-of-living raise.
According to the chair of the staff union bargaining committee, Jen Goeckeler-Fried, the lack of raises extends to staff as well.
Staff who are not members of Goeckeler-Fried’s bargaining unit have received a 2.5% raise but have new, higher healthcare costs. Staff union members were given a choice by the University to take the raise alongside the healthcare increases, like workers outside of Goeckeler-Fried’s bargaining unit, or to deny the salary increase and the coinciding healthcare costs.
Goeckeler-Fried said the union decided not to accept the raise because the rising costs of health care would cancel out the benefits of the raise. Instead, they decided to negotiate for raises in their contract.
“Just taking a look at what those increased [health care prices] would have been, it basically would have made that raise almost meaningless for the majority of staff, because the health care cost increases would basically take up all that extra money,” Goeckeler-Fried said.
The timeline of the potential 2.5% raises and higher health care costs was also an issue for the union, according to Goeckeler-Fried, as the plans were given to union staff members in the summer, before raises were guaranteed.
“We would have had to take the health care cost increase immediately, because that was already taking effect, but we would have had to wait to find out whether we really were going to get raises or not until after the budget passed, which was not going to happen for another month at that point,” Goeckeler-Fried said.
The graduate student union is planning to continue bargaining for its first contract with the administration on Thursday, Oct. 9, according to University media. The staff union will resume negotiations on Oct. 15, according to the staff unionization updates page. Updates on union negotiations for graduate students can be found on the Pitt Graduate Student Union website or the Pitt Graduate Student Unionization page.
Some members of the graduate student union say they are frustrated with the University’s timeline on bargaining, like organizing committee member and fifth-year mathematics PhD student Edison Hauptman.
“I’m extremely frustrated. I feel like all the administration has been doing since we announced our intent to unionize has been to delay and stall and try to wait us out,” Hauptman said.
According to Wewer, on Sept. 10, over 100 graduate student union members visited the office of Senior Vice Chancellor and Provost Joe McCarthy, who is responsible for the University’s academic mission, to discuss living costs, where he “refused” to see the students.
“We’ve gone multiple times now to see when [Provost McCarthy] was free. He still refuses to even have a conversation with grad workers.”
Wewer emphasized the financial stress graduate students are under with the lack of raises, saying students cannot focus on their work.
“We’re really giving a lot of chances to have this open dialogue with the University at the bargaining table or with other grad workers, and they’re really just not meeting us where they need to be,” Wewer said.
In response to the visit on Sept. 10, the University acknowledged graduate students’ rights to express their thoughts and expressed a commitment to future negotiations.
“The University respects graduate students’ right to share their perspectives and remains committed to negotiating with the graduate student union on the CBA [Collective Bargaining Agreement],” University spokesperson Jared Stonesifer said.
Despite their frustrations, union members like Hauptman say they believe in their mission and are dealing with delays from the University to the best of their ability.
“I think the administration thinks that this delay tactic will work, but I don’t think it will. It is plainly obvious that what the administration is doing is wrong, and I am confident that our union will be able to turn over its membership as some of us graduate and work to secure a good contract,” Hauptman said.
While Mahoney was unable to detail any specific future plans for the graduate union, they offered general predictions for the future of bargaining.
“I can’t speak to any future plans, but if Pitt continues to put up roadblocks to us getting what we deserve, then we will absolutely continue to plan actions, and show up at their offices and do what we need to do to make sure that we get what we have earned and what we deserve,” Mahoney said.