University lobbies capital for cash

Thirteen members of the Service Employees International Union traveled to the state capital… Thirteen members of the Service Employees International Union traveled to the state capital Tuesday to lobby for a $50 million increase in the University’s capital budget.

Local 3 of the SEIU includes employees around Pittsburgh – including ones at Pitt, Carnegie Mellon and Duquesne.

Pitt’s housekeeping, maintenance, grounds-keeping and housing employees make up 350 of the 55,000 SEIU members in Pennsylvania.

The requested budget increase would go toward capital building projects like new research facilities in the next three to five years. The projects would create 500 permanent jobs and more than 900 construction jobs, said Tom Hoffman, communications director for SEIU Local 3.

“In Pittsburgh, blue collar jobs are a vanishing breed,” he said. “We used to have the steel mills and those jobs are gone. The jobs that our members in Local 3 have are among the last good blue collar jobs available.”

Pitt offers these employees health benefits as well as perks like computers and a bus pass, said James Smith, who has been working at Pitt as a custodian for 13 years.

“It’s a great deal all around,” he said. “The University is trying to do the right thing with these jobs. The legislature should support the University.”

The group of 13 spent the morning visiting as many state representatives as possible, including Sen. Gerald LaValle and Sen. Jane Orie. The state House and Senate will have appropriation hearings during the next two weeks to decide whether or not Pitt will get the money requested.

Members participated in Pitt’s annual “Lobby Day” to encourage legislative aid for Pitt and its workers, Hoffman said.

“We feel that the jobs our members have at Pitt are very good jobs,” he said. “They support families, provide benefits and we think that Pitt should be supported.”

The SEIU is the largest union in the country, with 2 million members.

“Our goal is what we call building service workers,” Hoffman said. “We want to raise the standards for the jobs of our members.”

And as Pitt grows, employees want their benefits and their jobs to grow, too.

“We’re lobbying today so that we can have some stake in the University of Pittsburgh,” Smith said. “When Pitt is recognized and gets awards we take great pride because we had some part in helping them.”