Archives

October 29, 2018

Vote No on 105

I am voting NO vote on Measure 105 in support of the health and safety of my community 105 is a divisive anti-immigrant measure that local law enforcement veterans say would keep them from effectively doing their job to ensure public safety. The measure would repeal the bipartisan sanctuary state law that we passed in 1987 forbidding the use of state resources to do the work of federal immigration authorities. In the years leading up to the passage of the 1987 law, racial profiling of Oregon residents was known to be commonplace throughout the state, resulting in a profound lack…

October 29, 2018

Vote No on Measure 106

If you believe that all Oregonians should have equal access to the full range of reproductive health care, vote No on Measure 106. Measure 106 limits access to safe and affordable abortions. One of the arguments being used to justify this measure is economic, but even though limiting women’s access to affordable abortions will not save the insurance system money, it might easily push some vulnerable families into poverty. The measure is regressive and punitive in that those families with the fewest financial resources will be the most affected. Moreover, by placing limits on publicly-funded insurance, including plans offered by…

September 28, 2018

A Sour Note

While there is great anticipation for the coming academic year, there is also one sour note. Over the summer, the Office of the Provost ruled that faculty can be transferred within the institution at any time, for any reason. Essentially, you can be sent to work in Eugene, Portland, Charleston, or any other place the administration can call a university location. You can, of course, also be transferred back or somewhere else. The Provost’s Office believes that you have no right or say in where you work. This is especially frustrating because all the faculty spent countless hours over the…

September 25, 2018

Welcome new women faculty to campus!

The Center for the Study of Women in Society and the Office of the Provost invite you to a reception to welcome new women faculty to campus. New and current faculty at the University of Oregon are invited to attend to welcome new women faculty to campus, to learn about one another’s research and work, and to inspire collaboration, community, and support across campus. Don’t forget to bring your colleagues with you! While this event is titled as a reception for new women faculty, CSWS welcomes everyone on campus whose scholarship deconstructs and reconstructs approaches to gender, and we invite…

September 25, 2018

General Membership Meetings

United Academics will be bargaining out next Collective Bargaining Agreement in the 2019 academics year. We will be using the 2018-19 academic year to formulate bargaining planks. General Membership Meetings are a great opportunity to meet with other faculty and talk about what is and is not working at the University of Oregon, and to help inform bargaining conversations. 2018-19 General Membership Meeting Dates Thursday, September 27, 2018, from 5-7 in Gerlinger Lounge Thursday, January 10, 2019 Thursday, April 4, 2019

September 24, 2018

Update from the BVWU

Community support has been critical to our successive wins these last several months, and without you behind us at every step, Burgerville Workers Union would not have been able to accomplish all that we have. Since we filed for elections with the NLRB and won with overwhelming majorities at 2 locations this spring, we’ve been engaged in negotiations with Burgerville for our first contract. Negotiations have been tough as Burgerville has met even our simplest proposals with resistance, but we’re more determined than ever to continue putting pressure on the company to do right by their workers. While Burgerville promised…

June 27, 2018

The Janus decision and United Academics

Earlier this morning, the Supreme Court ruled on the Janus v. AFSCME case, deciding that public employee unions cannot collect “fair share” fees from people who have not joined the union as full members. These fees have, historically, been considered both constitutional and necessary to avoid the problem of “free-riding” by people who receive the benefits of the collective bargaining agreement, but do not voluntarily contribute to the costs of bargaining and maintaining the contract. As of today, public employees who have not signed union cards will still be represented by their union, but will not contribute to keeping their union stable…

June 14, 2018

English Department Formally Asks Provost’s Office to Improve Working Conditions for Career Faculty

On June 11 the English Department presented Provost Jayanth Banavar and Exec. Vice Provost Scott Pratt a comprehensive proposal for improved salary and working conditions for the career faculty in the Composition Program. This presentation arose after English devoted their entire April department meeting to deliver the same requests to the three Deans of the College of Arts & Sciences (Tykeson Dean of Arts and Sciences Andrew Marcus, Divisional Dean of Humanities Karen Ford, and Dean of Faculty Operations Bruce Blonigen). In both meetings, TTF and Career Faculty spoke together to address longstanding problems concerning salary, course load, contracts, and…

May 7, 2018

Toxic Ivory Towers: The Consequences of Work Stress on Underrepresented Minority Faculty

Ruth Enid Zambrana, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Women’s Studies, Director of the Consortium on Race, Gender and Ethnicity and Adjunct Professor of Family Medicine at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, School of Medicine. Dr. Zambrana’s scholarship applies a critical intersectional lens to structural inequality and racial, Hispanic ethnicity, and gender inequities in population health and higher education trajectories. Her major areas of research include women and health, Latinos in the US, chronic health conditions in life course trajectories and inequity to access in pathways to higher education.   This talk is cosponsored by the UO Department…

April 18, 2018

LERC’s Labor Research Colloquium Series

Lecture Series Sponsored by the UO Labor Education & Research Center Spring 2018 February 28th, 2018 • 4 – 5 pm Eileen Otis, Associate Professor, Sociology. Walmart in China: How are Chinese workers confronting the world’s largest company? April 18th, 2018 • 4 – 5 Lola Loustaunau, PhD student, Sociology. Organizing multiethnic, multilingual workers with insecure legal status: challenges and lessons from an intensive campaign in the Portland food industry. May 16th, 2018 • 4 – 5 Bob Bussel, LERC Director and Professor, History. Anti-racist union education in the post-WWII era: learning from history how working people’s art and education…