The Duck & Cover

February 18, 2025

Impasse Declared! Next Steps.

TL;DR: We declared impasse after the administration refused to move on their sub-inflation raise proposal. We enter a new phase where we need engagement from all members to secure a fair contract. Things you can do: Attend Strike School Tuesday 2/25 or Friday 2/28. (RSVP) Attend the Virtual Town Hall on Thursday 2/20. (Zoom in) Sign your strike pledge and talk to your colleagues about signing theirs. Talk to and/or share information with your students about impasse and the impact of a strike. IMPASSE DECLARED! Today, your bargaining team declared impasse. To explain this decision, it is worth reviewing how we…

February 13, 2025

Research Funding Threats, Strike School

TL;DR: Hear about our national affiliates’ response to executive orders affecting higher education. Sign your Strike Pledge, and talk to your colleagues about signing theirs. Attend our Strike School (2/14, 2/18, 2/25) and learn how to carry out an effective strike. Executive Actions and Threats to Higher Education We are closely monitoring the executive orders and subsequent legal responses that affect higher education. The current federal administration is trying to overwhelm the system by issuing a large number of executive orders. Their intentions include having local organizations lose their focus to stop them from achieving their principal goals. Given the pace…

February 11, 2025

Mediation Update… RSVP for Strike School

Mediation Update for February 7, 2025 Your bargaining team met with administration for our second mediation session on Friday, February 7. The session began with a conversation with Jamie Moffitt, the University’s Senior Vice President for Finance and Administration and Chief Financial Officer. We appreciated having a chance to speak with her, not so much due to the information that the administration team conveyed in this meeting – the same concerns regarding payments to PERS and PEBB, state disinvestment, enrollment figures and other anxieties that they have expressed since before we ever unionized – but for the chance to convey…

February 3, 2025

Membership Meeting this Thursday. Bring your colleagues and your questions!

General Membership Meeting In anticipation of the administration making minimal moves on economic proposals, we are now taking strike pledges. We will be talking about these as well as where we stand in mediation, our pressure campaign to attempt to avoid a strike, and our next steps at the General Membership Meeting Thursday, 5-7pm in Allen 221. Business begins at 5:30pm. You may also join us by Zoom. Bring your colleagues, ask questions, and share your thoughts and concerns. We’ll provide pizza and soft drinks. We’d love to see all members there. We Want to Hear From Researchers! Researcher Social…

January 31, 2025

Launch of Strike Pledges + Additional Week 4 Contract Actions

Tl;dr: Your bargaining team met with the administration’s team and the state mediator on Friday, January 24th for a 10-hour session. We made progress on non-economic issues, but we must still prepare for the possibility that we will be forced to strike. Therefore, we have three more contract actions this week to help build pressure for a fair contract. These actions include the launch of a UA strike pledge campaign, saving the date and inviting colleagues to the February 6th General Membership Meeting, and helping us reach our goal of 1,000 signatures on our community support letter! CONTRACT ACTION HIGHLIGHTS: WEEK…

January 27, 2025

Mediation Update for January 24, 2025

Your bargaining team met with the administration’s team and the state-appointed mediator for our first session on Friday, January 24. It was a long day but ultimately productive in terms of working through some of the non-economic proposals still left to resolve. The day began with introductions and a description of processes during mediation, and we then met with the Provost for a conversation. We were pleased that the Provost engaged with our team. Provost Long expressed that he understands the concerns faculty have that led us to mediation for the first time since unionizing. We made sure to convey…

January 24, 2025

Unit Policy Development and Course Releases for Administrative Work

Negotiations and mediation have been the primary focus of our union activities for the last several months. Nevertheless, as our campus community continues to engage in shared governance, a couple of systemic issues have cropped up that need attention. Unit Policy Development Units were charged with revising their Assignment of Professional Responsibilities policies last year. In many units that process played out as described in our Collective Bargaining Agreement, but we have heard concerns from many other corners of campus. Some faculty were not informed whether or not submitted proposals were approved by the Office of the Provost. Some were informed…

January 22, 2025

We need YOU to talk to students and colleagues about mediation this week.

TL;DR: To build pressure for a fair deal, we are asking YOU to take three contract actions that help grow our collective power: This Friday (Jan 24) post a Canvas announcement and/or update your email signature with info about bargaining; share context (slides + script) with your students about our contract fight; and talk to 2-3 coworkers about what YOU think we need to do to win the contract we deserve! ___________ Last week, our Contract Action Team launched our Contract Action Kit – a toolkit of resources and actions that you can take to help us secure a fair contract…

January 17, 2025

It’s time to turn up the heat on negotiations — here’s how you can contribute!

TL;DR: We need YOU to take three contract actionsthis week: join UA’s internal Slack and opt into UA texts; make our union more visible by flyering your workplace and wearing your UA gear every Thursday; and follow UA on all our socials! Instagram, Threads, Bluesky, Facebook. We hope your Winter quarter is off to a good start! As you know, we are entering mediation with the administration on January 24th. Bargaining is coming into the inevitable end-game stages where the pressure will continue to increase on both sides. While we have spent hours, days, months explaining faculty needs and fighting…

January 8, 2025

Mediation, Syllabus Statement, and FUD

TL;DR Syllabus statement regarding a potential strike. Admin using fear, uncertainty, and doubt to influence faculty; let us know when you see it. Soft launch of strengthenUO.org, our resource for the general public regarding our contract campaign. We hope everyone had a restful winter break. For those teaching this quarter, we have a syllabus statement at this link that you can use or modify to inform your students of potential disruptions to class due to a strike. We begin mediation with the administration starting in late January, and we hope that we can avoid a strike with the help of…

September 28, 2023

Holvey Recall

As many of you know, UFCW Local 555 has launched an effort to recall State Representative Paul Holvey. Holvey has represented District 8, which includes most of south Eugene, in the Oregon legislature for the past 18 years. We believe this recall effort is misguided. Representative Holvey’s record has been exemplary in support of workers, consumers, and small businesses. He is a former union carpenter with deep roots in the labor movement and has a solid track record of improving the lives of working Oregonians. He has consistently supported increased funding for education at all levels. This recall effort stems…

February 20, 2023

Solidarity with UA Student Workers

University of Oregon United Academics supports UO Student Workers’ unionization efforts and stands in solidarity with workers’ struggle to improve working conditions on campus. Additionally, UOUA condemns the ongoing anti-union and union busting behavior of the University of Oregon, including but not limited to: Threatening student workers’ jobs or rights to organize. Discouraging or banning discussion of UOSW’s unionization efforts during work time (when other non-work related discussions are permitted). Discouraging or banning students from card-signing in campus spaces and workplaces while off-the-clock. The removal of protected union posters and materials from work-neutral spaces. The discriminatory banning of union pins…

June 29, 2022

Balancing Work and Caregiving: A Best Practices Teach-In Summary

Throughout 2021-2022, United Academics and members from the CSWS Caregiver Campaign continued their collaborative efforts to push the University of Oregon administration to address issues of equity and inclusion for UO faculty struggling to balance the demands of caregiving while fulfilling their employment expectations. On April 27, we hosted a joint zoom teach-in with 43 attendees. The contents of this report lay out the scope of the issues but also provide hands-on practical strategies to address challenges that have existed long before the Covid-19 pandemic. There is a video recording of the Teach-In available on the CSWS website, as well…

September 13, 2021

COVID Planning: The Work Continues

Dear colleagues, Many of you have read the petition sent by CSWS recently to the Office of the Provost. UAUO fully agrees with the concerns Professors Escallón, McKinley, and Stephen articulated, and we are also in full support of their ask that “caregivers of unvaccinated children (children under 12) can continue to teach and attend meetings [remotely] at least until their family members receive the vaccine.” We’ve also heard from faculty whose health puts them at serious risk by being in-person, yet they cannot qualify for ADA accommodations. And for those of us who are able to come back to campus, we…

June 28, 2021

UAUO Protest Pollack-Pelzner Linfield University

Recently the President of Linfield University, Miles K. Davis, summarily fired Professor Daniel Pollack-Pelzner, a Shakespeare scholar who had held an endowed chair in the Department of English and had represented the faculty as a member of the Board of Trustees. According to the university administration, Pollack-Pelzner was terminated for reasons unrelated to his achievements as a teacher, researcher, or publishing scholar. Rather, the administration states that he was sacked because he had “engaged in conduct that is harmful to the university,” specifically that he had “violated instructions to preserve the attorney-client privilege” and that he had “circulated false statements…

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