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Motion of the Council of Allegheny County reaffirming its motion endorsing the union organizing efforts of the Pitt Graduate Student Organizing Committee affiliated with the United Steelworkers union at the University of Pittsburgh from July 11, 2017.
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WHEREAS, the University of Pittsburgh is publicly subsidized as part of the Commonwealth System of Higher Education; and
WHEREAS, 25,200 undergraduate students are enrolled at the University of Pittsburgh, of which 18,800 are Pennsylvania residents, most of whom are paying record high tuitions; and
WHEREAS, the University of Pittsburgh administration is spending an egregious amount of its tuition and tax funded budget on the same “union avoidance” firm that was used to stifle efforts to organize a graduate student employee union at Penn State University in 2018; and
WHEREAS, the Penn State University administration used misleading information and threats to intimidate international graduate student employees before a union election last year; and
WHEREAS, international students are an especially susceptible and precarious community, which plays an important role in the world class research and teaching work at the University of Pittsburgh that benefits our entire region.
NOW THEREFORE, IT IS MOVED THAT THE COUNCIL OF ALLEGHENY COUNTY
Strongly reaffirms its motion endorsing the union organizing efforts of the Pitt Graduate Student Organizing Committee affiliated with the United Steelworkers union at the University of Pittsburgh from July 11, 2017 (file number 10254-17).
IT IS FURTHER MOVED THAT
The University of Pittsburgh should cease using public funds and tuition dollars to conduct anti-union activities, and the administration at the University of Pittsburgh should pledge publicly not to threaten or intimidate international graduate student employees with spurious information meant to insight fear and prevent them from supporting and joining a union, which is the legal right of all graduate student employees in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.