Penn State faculty will vote on unionizing in 2026 after filing a petition for an election with the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board on Tuesday.
The Penn State Faculty Alliance, the group of university teachers and researchers leading the organizing effort, said that they surpassed the necessary 30% authorization cards from among faculty at campuses throughout the commonwealth to file for the election. The announcement came at a press conference at the state Capitol in Harrisburg, where faculty members were joined by officials from SEIU Local 668, with which the alliance has affiliated and which represents 20,000 public service employees across the commonwealth.
Representatives from SEIU’s national leadership, the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO, other members of organized labor and several state legislators were also on hand, including state Sens. Sharif Street and Lindsey Williams.
Penn State has approximately 6,000 faculty members and is the only among Pennsylvania’s four state-related universities without a faculty union. Steve Catanese, president of SEIU Local 668, said may be “the largest single union election in the public sector in the history of the Commonwealth.”
“Our message to Penn State is this: This doesn’t have to be a negative,” Catanese said. “You can embrace this opportunity to build something better with these faculty as they exercise their democratic voice at the workplace. We’re excited to engage with you. We’ve reached out to the university today. We’re open to dialogue. We’re ready to discuss how to make this a simple, seamless process, but we want to make sure that all these workers have a democratic voice and an ability to perform and join a union.”
University administration wrote in a provided statement that “Penn State deeply values the teaching, research, and service of our faculty, who play a critical role in fueling the success of our students and advancing our mission. We will review the petition when we receive it from the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board.”
On the heels of Penn State’s decision to close some Commonwealth Campuses, the faculty alliance announced earlier this year that efforts were underway to unionize. They cited a raft of university decisions, including changes to health care benefits, reorganization of university structures, employee buyout programs, new budget models and the Commonwealth Campuses, as the reason for needing a stronger voice for faculty.
Julio Palma, a chemistry professor at Penn State Fayette, one of the seven campuses slated for closure in 2027, said he began organizing efforts five years ago because he was concerned about the direction of the university.
“Big decisions that impact thousands of people, faculty, staff, students and communities, were being made by a small group of wealthy individuals that are far removed from the classrooms, far removed from our communities,” Palma said. “The campus closures, as impactful as it is, is just a symptom of a deeper crisis at the core of our mission. Many of us, before the announcement, long before the announcement, we saw it coming.
“…If we had had a faculty union, we wouldn’t be in this situation. We need a faculty union now. A faculty union will give us a real voice, a legally recognized voice to defend our jobs with dignity, to protect our profession, to protect academic freedom, to support our students.”
Kate Ragon, an assistant professor in Penn State’s School of Labor and Employment Relations, said working at Penn State is her “dream job.” But, she said that she and her colleagues have little input into decisions that affect their work and, for non-tenure-line faculty few protections for job stability.
“It turns out, really, that the deep care that we have for our students, for our research, for our community, as strong as it is, that can’t sustain us through burnout, through unrealistic workloads, staffing challenges, low pay and uncertain job security,” Ragon said. “As a teacher, I know that my working conditions are my students’ learning conditions. And so that’s why we are forming a union, because we want a voice in the decision-making that affects us, affects our students and affects our work.”
Since arriving at the university nearly 30 years ago, Victor Brunson, an associate professor of mathematics at Penn State Altoona and an organizing committee member, has seen the need for a union. Workplace democracy, he said, is vital to an institution like Penn State with a mission of teaching, research and service for the commonwealth.
“How can we do that adequately if the people that actually do that work, my colleagues, do not have any say in how the institution is run or the direction that it takes?” Brunson said. “That requires an institution that represents us. That means we need a union. Penn State needs a union and so does the state of Pennsylvania.”
The petition for an election comes less than a month after Penn State graduate students voted overwhelmingly in favor of unionizing, affiliating with United Auto Workers International Region 9. Teamsters Local 8, meanwhile, has long represented more than 2,500 university technical service employees, and Penn State nurses are represented by Penn SEIU Healthcare and OPEIU
“Just like the Teamsters unionized staff, like the newly organized graduate workers with UAW, it’s time for Penn State faculty to have our collective voice heard through our union,” Ragon said.
The next step will be for organizers to engage with the university and the PLRB to determine who will be eligible to vote in the union election, how it will be administered and when it will occur, according to the Penn State Faculty Alliance website. PLRB hearings may be required if agreements on election eligibility and administration can’t be reached.
“This filing is not just about paperwork,” said Rocío Sáenz, SEIU secretary-treasurer. “It is a statement of what makes higher education strong. Respect for workers, investment in people, and a commitment for the public good. The movement starting here today can make Penn State more stable, better prepared to serve future generations.”
