In an unusual move, Moore College voluntarily recognizes staff union

Moore College of Art & Design will voluntarily recognize the formation of a union among its staff without requiring an election.

Staff earlier this month made the request to form a union to Moore President Cathy Young.

Voluntarily recognition is relatively unusual in higher education, union officials said. United Academics of Philadelphia, a local of the American Federation of Teachers, said of the four unions it has organized locally, this is the only one where the employer voluntarily recognized the union.

» READ MORE: Moore College of Art & Design staff announce intention to form a union

At Pennsylvania State University, graduate students and now faculty both have had to pursue elections to form a union. Faculty will begin voting via mail ballots in April with results expected by mid-May. Graduate students at the University of Pennsylvania in 2024 also voted in an election to form a union and last month reached a tentative agreement on their first contract, which they later ratified.

But Moore, which enrolls about 500 students, is taking a different stance. Its lawyer said the school agrees with the union that “it is in the mutual interest of the staff, the students, the faculty and the administration of the college to maintain a positive employment relationship between the employees and the administration which recognizes and advances their respective goals and objectives through good faith collective bargaining.”

“The college also believes that its employees have the right to select their own representatives for these purposes,” lawyer Mark J. Foley wrote.

The union recognition is subject to an agreement on the bargaining unit description and confirmation that United Academics of Philadelphia have the support of the majority of the eligible staff, Foley wrote. The union will represent about 50 full-time and part-time staff at the Philadelphia-based art college. Faculty already have a union.

» READ MORE: Penn State faculty say they will vote on forming a union

“We are really excited about the prospect of working in collaboration with them to hammer out the details of voluntary recognition and get to the bargaining table as soon as we can,” said Daniel Pieczkolon, president of United Academics of Philadelphia and an adjunct faculty member at Arcadia University. “It’s always better to enter negotiations from a place of collaboration rather than a combative one.”

Some other colleges have extended voluntary recognition. At Brown University, post doctoral researchers received it and ratified its first contract last year, according to The Brown Daily Herald, the student newspaper. Wesleyan University voluntarily recognized an undergraduate student worker union in 2022.

At Penn State, however, the Service Employees International Union in a news release said the school’s administration has “announced ‘college-by-college’ anti-union meetings” and has put up an “anti-union website” that among other things suggests faculty unionization could hinder the school’s research capabilities. SEIU and Penn State Faculty Alliance are attempting to form a faculty union across the university’s campuses that eventually could represent 6,000 faculty.

“If a union is elected, it may impact Penn State’s ability to compete against peers to recruit leading faculty and researchers who drive innovation,” the university says on its faculty union frequently asked questions page. It notes that the majority of its peer school in Association of American Universities and the Big Ten do not have unionized tenure-line faculty.

It also warns unionization “may result in a loss of personal bargaining power in favor of collective representation.

“Union rules may limit faculty members’ ability to negotiate unique arrangements — related to course releases, research time and alternative duties — that many rely on to structure their lives and careers."

“Penn State’s administration is trying to drive a wedge between faculty members,” Andrea Adolph, a faculty organizer and associate professor of English at Penn State’s New Kensington campus said in a news release. “We are coming together to form a faculty union to improve conditions at Penn State.”

But Penn State in a statement said it is holding the faculty meetings to provide information to questions it has received from various sources and they “are designed to be an optional space to support open, respectful dialogue and provide information.”

The website, the school said, was launched to “provide clear information about the unionization process and related considerations.”

“We respect their right to seek union representation,” the university said.

Penn State is the only state-related university of the four in the Commonwealth without a faculty union.

Graduate student workers at Penn State voted to form a union in November, with about 90% in favor. But Penn State has appealed a Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board determination that research assistants should be included in the bargaining unit.