BARGAINING
UPDATES

June 9, 2025

Key Takeaways

• We reached Tentative Agreements (TAs) on Facilities and Support and Performance Evaluations

• We presented two new proposals that address Career Advancement and Inclusive Work Environments

• We rejected a deal from the administration that would have given us salary increases in September only if we also agreed to increased health and dental insurance plan costs

On June 5, 2025, your bargaining team met with the administration for an eventful session. We reached TAs on two proposals! Facilities and Support states that the University will provide bargaining unit staff with the facilities, services, equipment, training and tech support necessary to do our jobs, and that staff who teach can have access to the facilities, systems and equipment they need prior to the first day of classes.

Our Performance Evaluation TA establishes a requirement that supervisors' evaluations must be provided to bargaining unit staff at least one business day prior to the performance evaluation meeting, to allow the staff member adequate time to prepare. It also introduces an opportunity for staff members to indicate an interest in promotions and/or professional development, and asks that supervisors strive to provide professional development opportunities. Furthermore, if a supervisor determines that a staff member's performance is unsatisfactory, our agreement makes Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) formulation a more collaborative process. The staff member will participate in the plan development with their supervisor, and as part of the plan, concrete steps and how the steps will be measured will be included.

We also presented two new proposals. Career Advancement outlines the process and requirements for promotions, reclassifications and transfers, and if successful, would eliminate the current practice of having a new provisional period in all three situations, with a shorter (90 day) trial period upon transfer. We strongly feel that if you are performing well enough to earn a promotion, having a provisional period doesn't make sense. Likewise, if your job involves doing duties that align more closely with a different position than your current one, being reclassified to the correct position should not require a provisional period!

It's Pride month, which gave us the perfect opportunity to present a proposal on Inclusive Work Environments. We ask that bargaining unit staff be permitted to use their preferred name and pronouns in University systems (except where otherwise required by law),  that the University provide gender-neutral restrooms in University-owned buildings, and that bargaining unit employees should be free to use the restrooms that correspond to their gender identity. Beyond this, we seek accommodations for bargaining unit staff who are pregnant or breastfeeding, who have disabilities, or for religious practices. We recognize that certain accommodations are currently required by law, but laws can change, so we would like to see these important protections guaranteed in our contract, where we can call upon our union for support to ensure these rights are respected.

In the update that followed our last bargaining session, we told you about a "deal" that the administration had discussed, in general terms, in which we would receive raises, but in exchange, bargaining unit staff would have to accept the higher health and dental insurance costs that non-represented staff are facing for FY26. In this session, they finally put SOME numbers in writing for us to review, but still didn't provide all of the critical information that we needed to be able to make an informed decision. Yet, even without providing the data we requested on time, they expected us to “take it or leave it” by Monday, June 9 – only 4 days later! We finally got the data on Friday the 6th, giving us no time to seek input from bargaining unit members. The deal would have given staff members who were not in a provisional period and had satisfactory performance evaluations a 2.5% raise in September (retroactive to July 1), but only if the Board of Trustees approved the pay increase. The raises were not guaranteed.

In exchange, the administration proposed that union-represented staff would receive the same benefits as non-union-represented staff. This would mean that health and dental insurance premiums would increase by 8%; a doubled deductible for the most-popular Panther Gold plan, which would also have 25% increase in out-of-pocket maximum and increased co-pays for office and emergency room visits; a 50% increase in the out-of-pocket maximum for the Panther PPO plan; and significant increases in prescription drug co-pays across the board for all plans. These unfavorable changes were not contingent upon Board of Trustees approval for the pay increase, so members could have been on the hook for increased medical costs and also gone without any raise.

We understand that raises are important, and we expect to bargain significant wage increases in this contract, but with even moderate usage of the health plan, the increased costs of the administration’s benefit changes would effectively negate the administration’s proposed 2.5% raise! Furthermore, Pitt's share of the costs for the new healthcare plan would actually DECREASE, while our share would increase. For these reasons, and because the administration’s last-second proposal made consultation with the membership impossible, we rejected this proposed deal. We will negotiate pay increases in our contract. We will bargain about benefits. But we weren’t going to be pressured into taking a bad deal for our members.

In Solidarity,

Your Pitt Staff Bargaining Committee
Jen Goeckeler-Fried, Chair, Biological Sciences, DSAS
Mark Brown, Secretary
Kearsten Adams, Academic Advising, UPG
Shawn Alfonso Wells, Pitt Global Experiences, UCIS
Lydia Chmill, Disability Resources & Services, OTC
Emily Daller, University Child Development Center, OHR
Jay Hornack, Law 
Todd Shaffer, Office of Student Life, UPJ
Michelle Utz-Kiley, Epidemiology, SPH
Dan Wyszomierski, UPCI/NSABP
Matt Nader, USW
Nate Kilbert, USW
Don Shaffer, USW
Bernie Hall, District 10 Director, USW