For years, Pitt faculty union organizers visited offices, labs and classrooms to talk with professors about how a union could improve their lives. With a faculty union election coming up during a pandemic, organizers have transitioned their efforts to Zoom.

The United Steelworkers union is calling on Pitt to “end its anti-union campaign” against the efforts by faculty and grad students to unionize at the University.

Since the graduate and faculty union campaigns launched in 2016, Pitt has paid more than $1.3 million to “union avoidance” legal giant Ballard Spahr — an average of $328,000 per year.

A “union avoidance” law firm continues to receive a large windfall of legal fees from Pitt, recently passing $1 million, according to University financial disclosure reports.

As an urban campus bustling with nearly 30,000 students and more than 5,000 faculty, there’s always news breaking at Pitt.

With at least six months until Pitt organizers’ third attempt at a faculty union, Pitt administration and faculty are deep in a debate over the merits of unionization. Faculty say they’re gearing up for a battle.

A panel of faculty members from Pitt discussed the feasibility of faculty unionization.