USW Applauds Board Decision Reversing Pitt’s Changes to Staff Health Care Benefits

Contact: R.J. Hufnagel, [email protected], 412-562-2450

(Pittsburgh) – The United Steelworkers (USW) union applauded a decision from the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board (PLRB) today that ordered the University of Pittsburgh to rescind unilateral changes the administration made last year to health care benefits for some unionized employees. 

PLRB Hearing Examiner Stephen Helmerich found the university had committed unfair labor practices by making changes to the health care benefits of about 15 staff members during contract negotiations with workers at Pitt who are members of the USW. Helmerich also ordered the administration to repay, with interest, workers in this group who lost money as a result of the changes. 

The USW represents about 12,000 faculty, graduate workers and staff at the university’s main campus in Pittsburgh and regional campuses. Graduate workers and staff have been in the process of bargaining their first contracts since early 2025, while faculty members are negotiating their second agreement. 

“It’s long past time for the Pitt administration to start acting in good faith to reach fair contracts for all of its unionized workers,” said USW District 10 Director Bernie Hall, who represents more than 50,000 union members across the state of Pennsylvania. “The Pitt community deserves better than this kind of delay tactics and unfair activity from a world-class educational facility.”  

In a separate decision issued in April, Helmerich found that the university administration had engaged in illegal “direct dealing” by surveying union workers about mandatory subjects of bargaining and to have coercively interrogated staff regarding union membership.   

“We are beyond disappointed that the Pitt administration has once again chosen to engage in an unfair labor practice. We welcome this decision by the labor board as the appropriate outcome,” said Jen Goeckeler-Fried, bargaining chair for the university staff. “We are trying to work with the university to reach an agreement that is fair to both sides, and we hope that the administration will bargain with us in good faith going forward.” 

The USW represents 850,000 workers employed in metals, mining, pulp and paper, rubber, chemicals, glass, auto supply and the energy-producing industries, along with a growing number of workers in health care, public sector, higher education, tech and service occupations. 

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