University of Pittsburgh staff represented by the United Steelworkers will receive 2.5% salary increases, retroactive to Aug. 1, starting with their paychecks in mid-January.
That was the agreement reached between Pitt and the union last week.
University spokesman Chuck Finder directed a reporter to Pitt’s staff unionization information website for details on the agreement.
Making the raises retroactive to Aug. 1, instead of July 1, “offset the increase in healthcare costs and premiums that were already implemented for non-represented employees but not passed on to bargaining unit employees,” the university said. July 1 is the beginning of Pitt’s fiscal year.
The increase will be paid Jan. 23 for employees paid biweekly, and Jan. 30 for monthly paid employees.
“We’re really excited we could negotiated these increases without the increased health care costs — that’s the union difference — but we’re not done,” said Jen Goeckeler-Fried, bargaining committee chair for the staff union and a lab manager at Pitt’s department of biological sciences. “We’re trying to win better pay for represented staff at the University of Pittsburgh.”
The staff union covers about 6,000 employees, Goeckeler-Fried said. The union and Pitt are working through other contract proposals, she said.
“We’re working together to get the best contract we can in the interest of our staff,” she said.
The university said it is “grateful for the significant contributions of our staff to our community and in support of our mission.”
The agreement includes staff access to Pitt’s new, state-of-the-art Recreation and Wellness Center with the purchase of a membership.
Employees who make less than $50,000 annually, or the hourly equivalent, will pay $35 for a monthly recreation center membership; and employees who make more will pay $45 for a monthly membership.
A separate agreement also was reached last week between Pitt and its graduate student workers union.
Pitt will increase all stipends for teaching assistants, teaching fellows, grad student assistants and researchers by 2.5%, retroactive to Sept. 1, according to the University. The raises will be paid in January.
Pitt’s grad union didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment Monday morning.
