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Dear Colleagues, The public communications of the administration continue to indicate that their plan moving forward is to make pre-emptive layoffs of workers over the summer in preparation for projected budget deficits next year. Career lines, and perhaps even entire programs, have been identified for likely cuts. Meanwhile, the UO is outsourcing labor to low-paid, limited duration roles. We are extremely disappointed that the UO has chosen this “chop from the bottom” path without engaging in authentic deliberation with campus stakeholders like our labor union. Like many of you, we find it difficult to repeatedly be asked to absorb the…

Dear Members – It has become clear over the past couple of weeks that the Scholz/Moffit administration is preparing to make “difficult decisions” to reduce costs in response to a more negative picture of the university’s immediate financial situation. In addition to the campus-wide message sent by President Scholz and Provost Long earlier this week, we have heard reports from around campus with concerning implications for students, academic programs, and faculty careers. We have heard your concerns, and we, too, are worried. Amid the doom and gloom, there is some good news. Bargaining unit faculty are protected by the Collective…

General Membership Meeting Postponed May 1st is International Workers’ Day! Due to scheduling issues on campus, we’re pushing the Spring General Membership Meeting that was to be held that evening back a couple of weeks. The upside is that this will also allow our members to participate in the many other May Day events happening that day, including those organized by the GTFF and PCUN. The General Membership Meeting is now scheduled for May 29. Additional details will be shared soon. Save the date! Support UO Student Workers on Strike The UO Student Workers are on day three of their strike!…

A Plea for Active, Public Leadership from UO Administration We encourage members to read this letter, penned by UA’s inaugural President Michael Dreiling, urging UO administrative leadership to publicly and actively join other universities in defending higher education. Sign it here. Senate Meeting Wednesday at 3pm Attend the upcoming UO Senate meeting on Wednesday, 4/30 from 3pm-5pm via zoom (agenda and zoom). President Scholz is expected to share remarks during this meeting, and two resolutions will be considered for a vote: US24/25-20: Protecting Immigrant, International, and Noncitizen UO Community Members and, US24/25-21: Resolution to Establish a Mutual Defense Compact for the Universities of…

The United Academics Executive Council passed the following policy today. Among other things, we will be creating a legal defense fund to assist members for their family members who are targets of unlawful or suspect conduct by the federal government. If you are interested in being on a committee to help formulate policy and administer the fund, please email info@uauoregon.org. UA Sanctuary Policy Regarding Non-citizen & Naturalized Workers Whereas, United Academics (UA) recognizes that non-citizen and naturalized faculty members are indispensable to the scholarly mission of the University of Oregon and vital to maintaining a thriving campus culture; and Whereas,…

Greetings, my excellent colleagues! First of all, I want to express enormous gratitude for our Bargaining Team: Maram Epstein (East Asian Languages and Literatures) Jake Searcy (Data Science) Charlene Liu (Art) Dan Howard (Business) Debbie Green (Religious Studies) Josh Razink (CAMCOR) Keaton Miller (Economics) Nathan Whalen (Romance Languages) Heather Wolford (UA staff) They met, planned, and drafted proposals for months before negotiations started on Feb 1 of last year. Over the following fourteen months they met innumerable times to plan, strategize, and draft (and re-draft, and re-re-draft…) proposals to bring to the table. Anyone who observed the public bargaining sessions knows that our team…

An Overview of the Tentative Agreement We would like to provide a more comprehensive message about the Tentative Agreement to prepare members prior to a vote on ratification. Thank you to the nearly 600 members that tuned in for our emergency meetings (sorry for those folks that couldn’t get into the first one). And of course, to everyone that has showed up consistently over the last 14 months — the Bargaining Team, the Contract Action Team, our Reps and Stewards, and every rank-and-file member that came to bargaining sessions, walked the halls talking to members, and supported us all throughout…

Sign up for Your Strike Shifts! We need everyone to sign up for their picket shifts now.  For members who are not based in Eugene, we have a remote picket line where members can meet a few times weekly by Zoom and help with some of the behind-the-scenes activities necessary to support the strike. Please check out the #remote-strike-planning channel on Slack to connect and lend a hand if you cannot make it to the physical picket line. If you are concerned that you might be targeted because your identity, immigration status, etc, or if you have accessibility concerns that…

We all recognize that we are living in increasingly challenging times.  Bargaining is rarely a pleasant process, but the upheaval and chaos in our federal government has created a context that we had not contemplated a few months ago, let alone when we began the bargaining process.  At the same time, we continue to make amazing strides collectively in this fight for a fair contract.  We have expanded our collective power, faculty have become activated and come together to engage with our union at unprecedented levels, and we have secured changes that will improve transparency and strengthen shared governance at…

Dear colleagues, As Spring Break progresses, you will likely see messaging about the two visions for our university. While the administration wants faculty to focus on the risks of striking, we must remember that our primary goal is to secure a fair contract in order to improve faculty wages and working conditions and to strengthen the academic mission of the university. What are the risks of not securing a fair contract? Inflation would continue to chip away at faculty wages, our contributions would remain undervalued in the university’s mission, and the administration would feel emboldened to use the same tactics…