Faculty Assembly President Robin Kear said that the faculty union is moving to file an unfair labor practice charge against the University at a recent Assembly meeting.

To Faculty Assembly Vice President Kristin Kanthak, the recent actions of the faculty union are “frustrating and embarrassing”.

The PLRB certified the Pitt faculty union’s landslide election victory one year ago as of Friday. Since then, faculty have changed from advisors in a shared governance system to legal equals in slow and, at times, publicly bitter contract talks with administration. The very existence of negotiations, however strained, gives Melinda Ciccocioppo “a real sense of serenity.”

More than 150 faculty members showed up today, with signs and in song, on the steps of Posvar Hall to demand one thing — a fair contract.

The United Steelworkers union reached a “memorandum of understanding” with Pitt regarding expanded health and safety protections for faculty, following allegations that the University didn’t consult the faculty union before removing its mask mandate in March.

Nearly two months into contract negotiations between faculty union representatives and University officials, the union claims that Pitt seeks to unlawfully disqualify 600 members while failing to substantively engage in the bargaining process.

The United Steelworkers union filed an unfair practices charge against Pitt on Friday, alleging that University administrators failed to consult faculty before announcing that campus buildings would go mask optional starting Monday, according to a Friday evening press release from the Steelworkers.

Four months after Pitt faculty voted overwhelmingly in favor of unionization, the union’s newly formed bargaining committee sat down alongside United Steelworkers representatives last Friday to negotiate with the administration for the first time.

Chancellor Patrick Gallagher spoke with The Pitt News for about 20 minutes on Tuesday about the Omicron COVID-19 variant, the recent faculty unionization vote and the college experience during a pandemic.

University administrators continued to pay large sums of money to a “union avoidance” law firm, with total payouts approaching $3 million, according to financial disclosures.