Solidarity

February 7, 2020

UA letter in support of UCSC graduate students

Dear Chancellor Larive and Campus Provost/Executive Vice Chancellor Kietzer: As President of the United Academics of the University of Oregon, I am writing in solidarity with the Graduate Student Association at UC Santa Cruz.  United Academics is a wall-to-wall faculty union with 1700 members, some of whom were once graduate students at UC Santa Cruz. As a comparable public research university on the West Coast, we understand the pressures of running a university in an expensive location. However, we also recognize that below-living wages are detrimental to the academy and society, and moreover exaggerate systemic inequities in educational attainment. Does…

November 13, 2019

National Day of Action in Defense of Grad Rights

On November 14th graduate workers and their allies in higher education, the labor movement, and their communities will gather in Chicago, Boston, and Washington D.C. to protest the National Labor Relations Board’s attack on their rights. Ahead of this day of action we are aiming to collect 3000 comments to the NLRB.  Encourage friends and colleagues to submit comments on this page.

November 7, 2019

AFT-Oregon 2020 Scholarships and Awards are open for applications.

The AFT-Oregon 2020 Scholarship and Awards are open for applications. The deadline for the applications is January 31, 2020. An overview of the various scholarships and awards can be found here. Applications and additional details can be found on the website: http://or.aft.org/

October 17, 2019

Faculty Responsibility during a GE Strike

Dear Colleagues, As you know, the rumblings of an impending GE strike are growing louder, and questions have been raised about the expectations and obligations for faculty should that happen. Before any decisions are made about the University’s “Academic Continuity Plan,” I would like to share some thoughts to inform our discussions. To start, let me underline some of the information we shared with you in an August 27 e-mail. Some administrators incorrectly assume that faculty will cover for striking GEs. This is not necessarily so. Our collective bargaining agreement (CBA) requires faculty to “consult” about how work performed by a…

October 7, 2019

It’s Not About the Massages

The UO Administration has been spreading the rumor around campus that the GTFF is about to go out on strike because they love their free massages. This is bullshit.Before I became UAUO’s Executive Director in 2014, I spent 10 years working for the GTFF. So I know their contract, their health insurance program, and what is important to graduate employees on our campus.I hope you won’t mind a little history. In roughly 1999, the members of the GTFF fought to have a real, employment-based health insurance plan. They were able to get the administration to agree to pay for a…

October 3, 2019

How to Create Effective and Accessible PowerPoint Presentations

An ally of United Academics has designed a PowerPoint template and instructions for creating effective, accessible presentations. These slides have a small union “bug” on the footer which indicate that the presentation was made by union—in particular United Academics—labor.

May 22, 2019

Actions this week

 Events happening this week. We encourage you to participate! 1) UA t-shirts: We have new t-shirts at the union office. We are taking donations to help cover their cost (they cost UA about $11 each). Swing by, pick one up, and show your solidarity to campus! 2) Rally at the board of trustees.  Wear your new UA t-shirt! DON’T BALANCE THE BUDGET ON OUR BACKS! Meet us at the Ford Alumni Center to take over the Board of Trustees meeting! Members of LERC, GTFF, SEIU, UAUO, and ASUO will sign up to speak to the BOT about the proposed cut to…

April 26, 2019

United Academics’ Values

The members of UA are proud to work at a comprehensive RI university that aspires to maintain its history of being a great educational institution in the face of years of declining investment in higher education. As the educators and researchers who are responsible for our core educational mission, we are committed to prioritizing student success and maintaining access and support for all qualified students, including domestic and international students, four-year undergraduates, transfer students, and graduate students. Budgets are an expression of values: we are dismayed that nowhere in his statement of budget reduction values does President Schill mention a…

March 11, 2019

Follow-Up on Wright State Strike

On January 22nd, the majority of Bargaining Unit Faculty represented by AAUP-WSU made the choice to go on strike. Not for higher wages but for the protection of the academic mission of the university and our right to negotiate over our terms and conditions of employment. We stood strong for 20 days as the administration drug their feet to the bargaining table. Our  #solidarity prevailed.  The end result? A much stronger contract than the one the administration imposed on January 4th with restored protections and the preservation of our legal rights. We call this a win, but it comes at a price.  Collectively…

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