BARGAINING
UPDATES

November 18, 2025

On Tuesday, an overwhelming number of our coworkers joined our morning session to observe our virtual bargaining session and show the administration that we are not giving up the fight. The administration’s screen was full of grad workers with zoom backgrounds displaying messages such as “Pitt grad workers deserve a raise” and “Pitt grad workers deserve a fair contract.” Your presence mattered and we were humbled by your outpouring of support!

Throughout the day, we fielded the administration’s counter proposals on Grievance and Arbitration, Discipline and Discharge, Public Safety, Professional Rights, and International Employees. We traded counters on Appointments and International Employees as well as the grievances and discipline proposals. Our bargaining committee continues to hold strong on protections for our international coworkers and we stand in solidarity with them. We also reminded the administration that we are still awaiting responses on important articles concerning non-discrimination, academic freedom, and our interim raises.

We will be hosting another bargaining town hall on Thursday, December 4th, at 5pm in the Cathedral of Learning, room 2017. Sign up to join virtually at this link. If you are interested in joining future bargaining sessions as an observer, fill out this general interest form.

As usual, you can stay up to date with our Bargaining Tracker, and see this and previous updates and newsletters here. Don’t forget to fill out your membership card, or to fill out this form if your working conditions change. The administration will NOT have access to your membership card information (including whether or not you signed one) until our first contract is ready for ratification.

In solidarity, 

Your bargaining committee 

Lauren Wewer, Chair (MEMS)  
Michaela Cushing-Daniels, Recording Secretary (SPIA)  
Keanna Cash (SOE)    
Aden Halpern (Economics)  
Alisa Omelchenko (SOM)  
Chi-Tsung Chang (English)  
Tori Bonidie (Physics & Astronomy)  
Hollen Tillman (SSW)
Matt Nader (USW)
Nate Kilbert (USW)
Don Shaffer (USW)