Will we be affiliated with a national union?

Yes. We will be affiliated with SEIU Local 668. (Inter)national unions have resources and staff to support and advise us through organizing, bargaining, and governance. That said, faculty are leading this campaign and we collectively make all important decisions. We create our own structures and bylaws, elect our own leaders, and determine our own democratic processes. Most importantly of all, our organizing itself is faculty-to-faculty. Professional organizers help, but the only way to create a strong, sustainable union at the necessary scale is to organize ourselves.

Why did we pick SEIU?

Over 54,000 faculty members spanning sixty campuses nationwide have unionized with SEIU, and of the major players in higher education organizing, they have the largest footprint in Pennsylvania. Local 668 is a strong, democratically run union that represents 20,000 professional employees across the Commonwealth and has staff located throughout the state. They have a powerful lobbying arm, a Chief of Staff who has organized in higher education, and an Organizing Director who was a faculty member for nearly a decade, organized his campus and others, and has been deeply involved in this campaign for the past several years.

Some faculty unions affiliated with SEIU:

• American University - Adjunct faculty
• Boston University - Lecturers and Adjuncts
• Brandeis University - NTT faculty
• The University of Chicago - Collegiate Assistant Professors / NTL faculty
• Duke University - Adjunct faculty
• Fordham University - Full-time faculty and Part-time faculty
• The George Washington University - Part-time faculty
• Georgetown University - Adjunct faculty
• Howard University - NTL faculty and Adjunct faculty
• Loyola University Chicago - NTT faculty
• Northeastern University - PT faculty
• Tufts University - PT faculty and FT Lecturers
• Washington University in St. Louis - PT NTL faculty