A brief strike ended and another was averted Tuesday night after unions representing Duquesne University police and workers at PNC Park each reached tentative contract agreements with their respective employers.
Duquesne police officers and security guards will begin returning to work at 7 a.m. Wednesday, ending a strike that began 48 hours earlier, according to a statement from the university. Officers represented by Teamsters Local 249 voted unanimously on Sunday to strike the next day after failing to reach a contract during eight months of negotiations with the Uptown university.
"The university appreciates the good-faith efforts of all involved in the negotiating process that led to resolving this matter swiftly and positively for the good of our students and our entire campus community," Duquesne Vice President of Marketing and Communications Gabriel Welsch said in the statement.
Teamsters representatives, in a statement on the local's Facebook page, said they are pleased to have reached the agreement.
"The parties worked together to negotiate a fair deal," they said. "We would like to thank everyone who supported our members in their fight ... We are very proud of the men and women who stood up for wh.at they deserve!"
Also Tuesday, representatives of the Pittsburgh Stadium Independent Employees Union announced that they, too, had reached a tentative agreement with the Pittsburgh Pirates after meeting with team managers earlier in the day. The union represents ushers, ticket-takers and ticket-sellers at PNC Park as well as Acrisure Stadium.
PSIEU members had planned to picket outside the gates of PNC Park during the Pirates/Cincinnati Reds game on Thursday. Instead, they now will schedule another meeting to ratify the tentative contract with the team, the union said in a statement on its website.
"A date and time for this meeting has yet TBD," the union said. "At this time, PLEASE show up to WORK on Thursday, 4/20/23."
Details of the contracts were not immediately available. But representatives of both unions said earlier this week that they were seeking better wages for their members.
