Penn State faculty vote to form union
More than 2,500 Penn State faculty voted in favor of forming a union, which the university has recognized as a "clear majority" of those who voted.
Pennsylvania State University faculty have won the right to form a union in an election that drew more than 2,500 votes in favor of unionizing — about 75% of those who voted.
More than 800 faculty voted against the move.
The results were announced Thursday by the Service Employees International Union Local 668, which worked with faculty.
“Now, we can move forward as educators to create a better work environment for all faculty and support the best learning environment for our students,” organizing committee member Marissa Baez, an adjunct lecturer in arts and architecture at Penn State University Park, said in a news release.
» READ MORE: Penn State faculty say they will vote on forming a union
Penn State has been the only state-related university of the four in Pennsylvania without a faculty union. Unions exist at Temple, the University of Pittsburgh, and Lincoln University. Faculty at Rutgers, New Jersey’s flagship university, are unionized, too. So are the 10 universities in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education.
“Penn State is aware of the preliminary vote count results announced by the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board,” Penn State spokesperson Wyatt DuBois said, noting they indicate a “clear majority of participating faculty.”
But he said the university would wait to share more information with faculty until the results are certified by the PLRB.
Faculty filed for the union Dec. 9 and ballots were mailed to faculty members April 1, with a deadline of May 6.
The union will represent more than 5,000 faculty across the system’s campuses, including tenured and nontenured and full- and part-time faculty.
Graduate student workers at Penn State voted to unionize last year, with 90% in favor.
» READ MORE: Some Penn State faculty want to unionize as the university considers campus closures
Faculty members’ concerns about the university’s decisions began to accelerate during the pandemic and have continued to mount amid budget cuts and the announcement a year ago that seven of the school’s Commonwealth campuses would close. A seeming lack of shared governance, salary, and workload inequities across campuses are among concerns cited by faculty involved in the effort, as is transparency.
“The road toward equity, fairness, and better working conditions is never easy,” Julio Palma, an associate professor of chemistry at Penn State Fayette and an organizing member, said in the news release. “Our effort has always been about dignity, shared governance, protecting academic freedom, and ensuring that faculty have a meaningful voice in the future of Penn State.”
Now the work on a first contract begins, he said.
“This is not the end of the process,” he said. “It is the beginning of the hard and important work ahead to help uphold the University’s mission and values.”
