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.

After a multi-year effort to unionize, Pitt faculty voted in favor of creating a union, with 1,511 faculty members voting in favor and 612 against. Professors opposed to the union reflected on the vote and the upcoming push for a first contract with the University.

Dozens of Pitt faculty — both organizers and ordinary supporters — gathered at the United Steelworkers headquarters Wednesday evening Downtown to celebrate their victory and reflect on the yearslong campaign.

Pitt faculty now have a position of leverage from which they can hold administration to an unprecedented degree of accountability, but that also means union leaders are accountable to their members.

Researchers and professors from across all Pitt campuses voted resoundingly to form a faculty union, according to a copy of an election returns document obtained by The Pitt News.

More than five years after Pitt faculty began a union-organizing campaign, they will start to find out next week whether they succeeded in bringing a union to campus.