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.

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.

Pitt’s Faculty Assembly met Wednesday afternoon in a hybrid fashion to discuss the faculty union vote, union contract negotiation and a report from the Senate Budget Policies Committee about Pitt's partnership with the Outlier program.

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’s Student Government Board congratulated faculty at their Tuesday public meeting on voting overwhelmingly to form a union, and also discussed student organization budgets, spring SGB election and a potential “green fee.”

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.