<\/p>\n
Old Main on the Penn State University Park campus on Wednesday, May 21, 2025. <\/p>\n
Abby Drey<\/p>\n
adrey@centredaily.com<\/p>\n
As faculty at Penn State move toward finalizing a date for a unionization election, more than 100 Pennsylvania state legislators have banded together to urge the university administration to \u201cexercise neutrality toward faculty unionization.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a letter sent to Penn State President Neeli Bendapudi last week, 102 state legislators, senators and representatives of the General Assembly said they were encouraged to hear faculty members are coming together to \u201cstrengthen their ability to serve the educational and research missions of the university.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe faculty workplace is the students\u2019 learning space, and ensuring that faculty can embody excellence both in and outside of the classroom will ultimately benefit Penn State students. Collective bargaining of Penn State faculty will deepen the robust academic experience that we have come to expect from your institution,\u201d reads the letter , which was signed by two state house representatives from Centre County, Rep. Scott Conklin, D- Rush Township, and Rep. Paul Takac, D, College Township.<\/p>\n
The letter, which can be read in full at the bottom of this article, listed requests the signers urged Bendapudi and the administration to commit to, including:<\/p>\n
Allowing faculty a free and fair process to form their union and to bargain collectively, without intimidation or threatsAvoiding actions that delay or interfere with their right to seek union representation or collectively bargainNot spending state funds, taxpayer dollars or tuition dollars on \u201cunion-avoidance tactics\u201d or on engaging with union-avoidance firmsBeginning good faith negotiations without delay if a majority of Penn State faculty members choose union representation in an election<\/p>\n
\u201cThe process of faculty organizing and collective bargaining at Penn State will enable the university to join all other public institutions of higher education in the Commonwealth in providing a clear and transparent process for true shared governance. Improved working conditions and opportunities for faculty to help charter the course of Penn State\u2019s future will result in even stronger results for your investment in students and communities across Pennsylvania,\u201d the letter states.<\/p>\n
In an email to the Centre Daily Times, Conklin reiterated his support for the Penn State Faculty Alliance and their unionization efforts.<\/p>\n
\u201cI fully support Penn State Faculty Alliance\u2019s efforts to unionize, and always maintain that the will of the worker must prevail,\u201d Conklin said. \u201cAll they are asking for is to be treated with dignity and respect without the fear of retaliation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Julio Palma, an assistant professor of chemistry at Penn State Fayette, told the Centre Daily Times it is encouraging to have the support from elected officials, and they\u2019re grateful for it. He\u2019s been part of the organizing effort for six years and filing for the election<\/a> in December isn\u2019t the end, he said, it\u2019s just the beginning.<\/p>\n \u201cWe care about our profession. We care about our mission as educators, we know that this is the best way, the only way, to actually protect academic freedom, protect job security, and at the end, all this is good for education and also our students. Protecting academic freedom is actually supporting our students and their education at Penn State,\u201d Palma said.<\/p>\n Takac said he\u2019s always maintained that workers should have the right to unionize if they want, which is why he signed onto the letter but wasn\u2019t taking a position on whether they should unionize or not. And although a press release from SEIU Local 668, the union that faculty would be represented by, said the letter called for the administration to exercise neutrality toward faculty unionization, Takac thought the word \u201cneutrality\u201d is misleading.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not taking sides. I\u2019m not saying whether one side or the other is right, but they both have the right to represent their own interests, and I believe that that\u2019s proper,\u201d Takac said. \u201cI actually think the word \u2018neutrality\u2019 might be a little misleading. I think what we\u2019re calling for is them not to interfere with the unionization efforts. I believe that Penn State, the administration, is well within their rights to advocate for the way they see the downsides or disadvantages of unionization is. I think that\u2019s well within their legal rights to be able to do, and I would argue that they should have the right to that as well. That\u2019s not necessarily neutrality, but it is not interfering.\u201d<\/p>\n In a statement, Penn State said it\u2019s committed to working closely with the faculty and noted faculty are integral to the university\u2019s core mission.<\/p>\n \u201cWe respect their right to seek union representation, and we are working with the Penn State Faculty Alliance and the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board to finalize the details of the election, which we anticipate could begin later this semester via mail-in ballots. Faculty unionization would represent a fundamental shift in University operations, and we urge all eligible faculty to educate themselves and \u2014 most importantly \u2014 to vote,\u201d a university spokesperson said.<\/p>\n During a faculty senate meeting Tuesday, Fotis Sotiropoulos, executive vice president and provost, said it will be a \u201chistoric\u201d election for Penn State. He said Kathleen Bieschke, senior vice provost, and Jennifer Wilkes, vice president for human resources and chief human resources officer, will soon hold town halls with each unit to give faculty the opportunity to ask questions and learn more.<\/p>\n A faculty member asked Sotiropoulos about how a vote to unionize could impact the flexibility that faculty have to pick up overload and other compensated opportunities that they currently have access to now. He said they\u2019re entering an \u201cuncharted territory;\u201d when a union is established, they have a negotiated contract and many of the things they currently do now will be on the negotiation table, where they\u2019ll start from scratch, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not very easy for me to address this, but there will be impacts. I think it is possible that flexibility will significantly be reduced,\u201d Sotiropoulos said. \u201cWhat I would encourage you, for instance, to do is to go and look at some of the contracts that are out there. You should look at the Pittsburgh, for instance, contract which has a lot of specifics about what the workloads, what the expected teaching loads of faculty, what are the expected contributions for benefits and many other things that are prescribed there. But these are all going to be subject to the negotiations, and we have to wait and see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n Allegations of anti-union messaging<\/p>\n The press release accompanying the legislators\u2019 letter alleges that recently Penn State has \u201cincreased its anti-union messaging, designed to divide and confuse faculty.\u201d The Penn State Faculty Alliance on Facebook posted one example, a letter sent to faculty from Sotiropoulos. The PSFA annotated the letter to highlight different parts, including one part of the letter that states, \u201cI cannot overstate the importance of each person educating themselves and taking time to vote. Because the outcome is determined by a majority of votes cast \u2013 not a majority of all eligible faculty \u2013 a small group of voters could decide the issue for our institution and thousands of our faculty, now and into the future. So, for example, if only 10 faculty members vote, those 10 individuals would decide the outcome for everyone.<\/p>\n The PSFA\u2019s annotation is: \u201cstatistically, quite unlikely,\u201d with a laughing emoji, and pointed faculty members to their website for information and updates, pennstatefacultyalliance.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n