The Duck & Cover

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…

December 19, 2024

Syllabus statement regarding a potential strike.

The administration has called for mediation-a state mandated part of bargaining once negotiations have broken down. They have reiterated their intent to pay faculty lower wages in real dollars. While your bargaining team will engage with the mediator and the administration’s team in good faith, evaluating all proposals carefully, we have heard unequivocally that faculty will not stand for wage cuts-not while tuition, state appropriations, and executive administrator salaries are growing faster than inflation. If there is no movement from administration, we may be forced to strike in order to secure the economic and professional conditions faculty need to flourish….

December 11, 2024

Bargaining Update for December 5, 2024

Admin Calls for Mediation Our bargaining session on December 5 shifted the dynamic of our contract negotiations moving forward, as the administration’s team announced they intended to file for state mediation. They chose to send this announcement over email rather than facing our members in person-who packed the EMU Crater Lake rooms after rallying, marching through the EMU, and making our voices heard across the campus. After minor discussion on the few proposals left for our side, the administration presented Article 26: Salary packaged into a deal with Article 28: Miscellaneous Benefits and Article 33: Sabbatical. A package offer means that all the specific proposals in each article…

December 3, 2024

Bargaining Update for November 21, 2024. Last session scheduled for Thursday, December 5.

TL;DR The final scheduled bargaining session is Thursday, December 5, 12:30-3:30, with the brief United for UO rally at the EMU amphitheater at noon. The administration has still refused to acknowledge the erosion of wages due to inflation and the increase in administrative work being pushed down to faculty. They have steadfastly refused to move our wages to the average of our comparators. This is likely our last opportunity to try to convince the administration that we will not accept real wage cuts, and fair compensation is a much better alternative to the disruption of a potential strike. Final Bargaining Session Most of what remains in terms of bargaining has…

November 19, 2024

Bargaining Update for November 14, 2024

TL;DR: Bargaining is becoming less productive as time progresses. We expect this process to enter mediation soon. Come to bargaining Thursday November 21, 12:30-3:30, in Chiles 125. Still No Movement from Admin Thank you to everyone that came out to bargaining last Wednesday. The Oregon Falling rally buoyed our team’s spirits and showed administration the broad support for our proposals. We are bargaining again on Thursday, November 21 from 12:30-3:30 in Chiles 125. Your presence is still necessary to motivate the administration to take our demands seriously now, before we may have to take more dire actions later. Your team presented our proposal…

November 10, 2024

Combating misinformation, Scholz’ wage cuts

Earlier this week the Scholz administration sent a bargaining update stating that they remain “committed to a compelling total compensation structure that retains and recruits faculty in service of our shared mission” subject to the financial constraints faced by the institution, pointing to state disinvestment and a competitive market for students at our current tuition levels. The truth is that the university is in a better financial position than it was a decade ago, and that faculty are in a worse position. State support has increased faster than inflation, tuition has increased faster than inflation, yet faculty salaries haven’t kept up. The administration continues to erode the…

November 6, 2024

Solidarity—an invitation to the UA office.

Dearest colleagues, Solidarity is more than joining ranks to fight for the pay and working conditions we deserve. Solidarity is about being there for one another to offer support, assistance, or even just a kindly ear when needed. To any faculty feeling unsafe, angry, disillusioned, lost, lonely, or unsure of what to feel or what to do next at this incredibly difficult moment: we are here for you. We extend a standing invitation for folks to stop by the United Academics Union Hall for snacks, a beverage, and a listening ear. Or just a safe place to sit and to…

November 5, 2024

Bargaining Update for October 31, 2024

No Movement from Admin Your bargaining team met with the administration for the 17th session of negotiations on October 31st. Thank you to everyone who attended, whether in person or over Zoom! The next bargaining session is Wednesday, November 13th. More on that below. The Scholz administration refused to move on salaries… or anything else. The administration returned Article 26: Salaries to us. The headline numbers are unchanged: the administration is offering us a package that would permanently devalue our work, reduce our quality of life, and ultimately mean a pay cut (in real terms). The administration also rejected modest…

October 28, 2024

General Membership Meeting this Wednesday – Your Input Needed!

Good afternoon, colleagues!Amid ongoing contract negotiations which are becoming ever more difficult, we are holding a meeting for all union members this Wednesday, October 30, from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM at the Crater Lake Rooms in the EMU. Dinner and drinks will be provided.It is no exaggeration to say that this may be our most important “General Membership Meeting” yet.Starting at 5:30, members of the bargaining team will give an update on the progress (or lack thereof) since February. We’ll have a conversation about how negotiations may play out over the next couple of months. Then, we’ll ask everyone…

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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