PITTSBURGH (TNS) — Labor and employment at the University of Pittsburgh looks completely different than it did a year ago.

This semester, strong majorities of the university’s graduate students and staff both voted to unionize.

And in May, Pitt’s faculty ratified their first union contract that set a wage floor and raised pay for more than 3,000 full- and part-time workers at the university’s five campuses — including in Bradford. Faculty members had voted to unionize in 2021.

But big labor changes aren’t isolated to Pitt. At universities across the country, more faculty, staff and graduate students are organizing.

A September study by the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions found that, since 2012, the share of unionized faculty has increased more than 7%. During the same period, overall unionization has declined in the U.S. As of Jan. 1, 27% of all faculty were unionized.

And about 38% of graduate student workers were part of a union in 2024 — a 133% increase from 2012.

“There’s been a real upsurge in unionization of faculty and graduate student employees across the country,” said Risa Lieberwitz, a labor and employment law professor at Cornell University who also serves as the president of the Ivy League school’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors.

In recent months, schools like New Mexico State University and Virginia Tech have seen their faculty and graduate students, respectively, unionize.

A growing number of Penn State graduate students are pushing for unionization after a failed vote in 2018, WPSU reported. And Chatham University faculty were in talks to unionize, though faculty leaders announced in late November that they were withdrawing from a National Labor Relations Board hearing process.

Ms. Lieberwitz attributed growing unionization in higher education to a number of factors.

On the faculty side, the share of tenure-track faculty is declining. At the same time, the number of administrators has increased, which can undermine the process of shared governance, Ms. Lieberwitz explained.

“Faculty may unionize whether they’re on the tenure track or not, because they find that unionization is a way in which their collective voice can be stronger in the governance of the university and in bargaining for employment conditions,” she said.

For graduate students, unionization may be appealing as universities increasingly use lower-paid labor with less job security — often in the form of graduate student work.

“Many of them are doing a lot of teaching… without the kind of job conditions that would enable them to have a good wage and to cover their needs [such as] housing,” Ms. Lieberwitz said. “For graduate student employees, you see a real recognition that the collective power that they have when they join together really improves their employment conditions.”

And both faculty and graduate students care about academic freedom and improvements in “bread and butter” areas like salary, benefits and insurance, Ms. Lieberwitz said.

At Pitt, roughly 2,100 graduate students voted overwhelmingly to unionize in November, in contrast to a 2017 election in which they fell short of a majority vote.

Student workers directly employed by the university — including graduate student researchers, graduate student assistants, teaching fellows and teaching assistants — are pushing for stipend increases, a voice in their hours and conditions of work, and affordable health insurance, among other demands.

About 6,300 Pitt staff members, meanwhile, voted to unionize in September. Staffers will have two bargaining units — one for professional workers and the other for non-professional — and are pushing for improved pay and secure benefits.

Both groups joined the United Steelworkers union, which also represents Pitt faculty.

As for the university, school leaders have stressed their commitment to “coming to the table in good faith” during the collective bargaining process with both staff and graduate students.

“The university has a great deal of experience in working with our unions and is committed to providing updates and ongoing information,” Pitt spokesman Jared Stonesifer said after graduate students voted to unionize. “While first contract negotiations can be complex, please know that we will come to the table in good faith and be there to support all graduate students throughout and beyond the process.”

(c)2024 the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

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