After years of discussions, more than 2,500 Penn State faculty vote to unionize

More than 5,000 Penn State faculty members will unionize, a significant step in many professors' aim to have more say in working conditions and university decisions.

Nearly 75% of those who cast a ballot - or 2,510 faculty members - opted to join Penn State Faculty Alliance (PSFA), SEIU Local 668, according to preliminary election results shared by faculty leaders Thursday. The Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board has yet to certify the vote count.

Just under 850 voted against a union. A simple majority would have decided the vote.

Tenured, pre-tenure, non-tenure-line and part-time faculty at the main University Park campus and branch campuses will now have union representation.

Julio Palma, a chemistry professor at the Fayette branch campus, said there were numerous reasons faculty wanted to unionize, including employment conditions, pay, the direction of the university, academic freedom and defense of Penn State's mission.

Faculty members are eager to sit down with administrators and start negotiating a contract, he said. Initial negotiations could span months to years.

"We are committed to working with the administration to make Penn State even better," Palma told the Post-Gazette.

Penn State leaders said they are aware of the preliminary results.

"Based on the preliminary results, a clear majority of participating faculty appear to have voted in favor of representation. Because the results are not yet official and remain subject to the PLRB certification process, the university will share additional information with faculty following certification of the election results," spokesman Wyatt DuBois said in an email.

Some faculty members had accused the university of running an "anti-union campaign" in the months leading up to the election. They expressed concerns with informational meetings that administrators held regarding unionization, as well as with an FAQ page created by the university detailing potential impacts that unionization could have on research and the budgeting process.

Talks of unionization began six years ago with a small group of professors, Palma said.

The movement gained steam in recent years after administrators and trustees decided to close seven commonwealth campuses - including Fayette, New Kensington and Shenango in Western Pennsylvania - in spring 2027, citing enrollment and financial concerns.

Students, faculty and community leaders have argued the closures will hurt the state's rural areas. Palma believes a faculty union could have provided some safeguards during the decision-making process.

"If we had had a union, this wouldn't have happened the way it happened," he said. "The process would have been more transparent. It wouldn't have been so secretive and quick."

A subsequent 47% pay raise for Penn State President Neeli Bendapudi further incentivized unionization, Palma said. Ms. Bendapudi's base salary is now $1.4 million.

Professors like Palma hope the union will give them more of a voice in Penn State's direction. Currently, he feels that "a few individuals make decisions that affect thousands of people."

The election, which began April 1 and ended May 6, was one of the largest modern union elections in Pennsylvania's public sector. SEIU Local 668 is a statewide public-sector union that represents 25,000 workers across every Pennsylvania county.

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. SEIU 668 President Steve Catanese said in a news release.

Unionization is a growing trend in higher education. A 2024 study by the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions found that the share of unionized faculty had increased more than 7% since 2012. This comes as the share of tenure-line faculty has declined, while the number of part-time faculty has increased since the 1980s.

At Penn State, graduate students voted overwhelmingly to unionize in fall 2025. And at the University of Pittsburgh, a fellow state-related school, strong majorities of the university's graduate students and staff both voted to unionize in fall 2024. Pitt faculty elected to do so in 2021.

Pitt's faculty negotiated a $60,000 salary floor for full-time faculty. Prior to this, some full-time Pitt professors earned just $25,000 annually, according to the union.

Penn State professors have indicated they could address wages, benefits, supplemental pay, job security, health and safety during negotiations.

"There is a new renaissance in the union movement," Palma said.

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This story was originally published May 15, 2026 at 3:51 PM.