Penn State faculty vote to unionize in one of PA’s largest public sector union elections
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Faculty voted via mail-in ballots administered by the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board.
- 2,510 faculty voted in favor; over 5,000 faculty will join SEIU Local 668.
- A state labor agency will certify results and recognize SEIU as exclusive bargaining rep.
Results from the Penn State Faculty Alliance election revealed on Thursday that a majority voted to unionize during one of the largest public sector union elections in Pennsylvania’s history.
More than 5,000 professors and faculty members were eligible to vote in the election, which started April 1 with mail ballots that needed to be returned by May 6. The faculty union, Penn State Faculty Alliance, is affiliated with SEIU Local 668, and 2,510 faculty members voted yes, the alliance posted on its website.
SEIU Local 668 is a social service employees union that represents 20,000 workers in Pennsylvania and 54,000 higher education workers nationwide.
The union will represent faculty members of every rank and discipline across the commonwealth campuses, including tenured and contingent faculty, as well as full-time and part-time instructors.
“Every worker deserves a seat at the table, and SEIU 668 is committed to fighting for that right and opportunity in every corner of the Commonwealth,” SEIU 668 President Steve Catanese stated in a press release. “Now that Penn State faculty have won their seat at the table, our commitment and focus turn to bargaining a transformational first contract for faculty at every campus.”
Beth Seymour, teaching professor of anthropology at Penn State Altoona and PSFA organizing committee member, called the election results “a win for all Penn State faculty.”
“We encourage all faculty to join PSFA and get involved, as we look forward to working with the University and quickly negotiating a strong contract for the faculty,” she said. “Together we will build a strong future for our entire University community.”
A Penn State spokesperson said the university will share additional information with faculty following certification of the election results by the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board, which are expected in the coming weeks.
Years of organizing efforts led to union election
The majority vote is the result of years of organizing efforts beginning from administrative tensions during the COVID-19 pandemic when the university began imposing policies in classrooms, Heather Page, a member of the organizing committee and student engagement and outreach librarian in Penn State’s Fayette campus library, said in an interview this week.
“The university’s COVID policies were incredibly unsatisfactory for a substantial amount of faculty,” Page said, adding the example of a mask policy that was enforced without proper support for faculty who were solely focused on teaching.
Faculty members began organizing for a union from then on, to develop a voice in Penn State’s decision-making process.
“They started looking into it like, what would move the needle? What would make the administration have to listen to us and have us have a voice? And the only option was to form a union,” Page said.
SEIU collected more than 30% of eligible faculty support via signed authorization cards and filed for an election in December.
“This is an historic union election and the largest union election in Pennsylvania’s public sector in nearly five decades,” Penn State Faculty Alliance wrote on its website.
In voicing support for the union, faculty members have pointed to a range of concerns, from upcoming campus closures to the implementation of AI.
“The conditions of our work and the union is a way to address those issues and to improve our experience, and to improve the experience of students too when we don’t have to worry and are able to really engage with the community in a way that we, in some cases, are not currently,” Harvey Patricia, Ph.D. assistant teaching professor of English, told the CDT.
This shifts the balance of power, making the union a dominant, top-tier force in the state’s higher education sector, Patricia said.
“With a contract that preserves the things that faculty need and value and having a seat at the table and being able to make sure that our people are taken care of is really what it’s all about, and beyond the union, there’s no other body or mechanism that can do that for us,” he said.
What happens next?
Moving forward, a state labor agency will officially certify the results and recognize the union as the faculty’s exclusive bargaining representative. The union then becomes the legal voice for faculty on pay, benefits, workload, job security, and working conditions, and the university is required to negotiate with it in good faith.
Faculty will choose union leaders and a bargaining team, collect feedback from coworkers, and begin negotiating their first contract with the administration, which can take several months.
Once an agreement is reached, faculty vote on whether to approve it. If approved, the contract becomes binding and sets rules for pay, working conditions, and protections related to issues such as campus closures and AI use. Afterward, the union focuses on enforcing the contract and representing faculty in future negotiations.
This story was originally published May 14, 2026 at 4:46 PM.
