Efforts are underway to unionize Penn State faculty members, a move the organizing group calls “long overdue.”
The Penn State Faculty Alliance wrote on its website that faculty “across all PSU campuses” have already signed authorization cards, the first step toward forming a union. Once a minimum of 30% of eligible faculty, the group will file with the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board for a union representation election, with the board likely holding hearings to determine the exact group of faculty eligible to vote before an election can occur.
Based on the unionization at state-related peer Pitt, the alliance believes Penn State’s final bargaining unit would include full-time and part-time tenure-line and non-tenure-line faculty at all campuses except the College of Medicine in Hershey.
If successful, faculty would be affiliated with Service Employees International Union Local 668. Nationwide, SEIU represents than 50,000 college and university faculty members at 60 campuses.
“Of the major players in higher education organizing, they have the largest footprint in Pennsylvania,” according to the Penn State Faculty Alliance. “Local 668 is a strong, democratically run union that represents 20,000 professional employees across the Commonwealth and has staff located throughout the state.”
Unionization efforts come as Penn State faculty have directed pointed questions at university President Neeli Bendapudi’s administration about concerns over their role in shared governance and the planned closure of some Commonwealth Campuses.
Those were among several issues raised by the Penn State Faculty Alliance.
“Over multiple administrations, we have experienced summary changes to our healthcare benefits and premiums, reorganizations of university structures, a hastily launched [Voluntary Separation Incentive Program], new budget models and processes that have sown confusion and fear throughout our community, and an “othering” of our Commonwealth campuses,” the alliance wrote. “What we need instead is stability, transparency, and a guaranteed voice in shared decision-making.”
Penn State is the only one of Pennsylvania’s four state-related universities — which in addition to Pitt also include Lincoln and Temple — without a faculty union. Pitt’s faculty bargaining unit, which affiliated with United Steelworkers, was certified in October 2021 and ratified its first negotiated contract in 2024.
Pitt’s contract includes a 1.5% rate for union dues, while SEIU’s rate is set at 1.39%.
“Because [Pitt’s] contract also includes a first-year raise of $3,900 for full-time faculty and 4% for part-time faculty, all faculty making less than $260,000 a year had their dues paid for by their initial raise (not to mention a salary floor bump where applicable and yearly raises afterward),” the Penn State Faculty Alliance wrote. “That said, the benefits of union representation far outweigh the cost of union dues, and faculty would never approve a contract where dues outstrip pay.”
The Penn State Faculty Alliance says its deep-rooted issues are about more than pay and have persisted across multiple administrations.
“Each new university administration has asked for our good will when coming on board–but what have been the results? Have these chances and our patience led to broad, meaningful improvements in working and learning conditions at Penn State?” the alliance wrote. “The issues are structural; as such they can only be addressed through structural changes that will come with an empowered faculty.
“If anything, a faculty union is long overdue. The time to act is now.”
