Our last bargaining session of the term is Thursday, June 13, 12:30-3:30 in Chiles 125 (and via Zoom).
We need a big turnout to help us avert a strike.
This will be our tenth session and we continue to make good progress on many of our non-economic proposals (currently 7 articles have been tentatively agreed upon and a few more are almost there). However, the administration's refusal to make significant movement on our economic provisions does not bode well for the future.
We will present our counter to Article 26 (Salary) on Thursday and want to engage the administration on their plan on future compensation for faculty. We strongly reject their proposal that focuses entirely on small merit raises. These raises do not come close to meaningfully bridging the gap between University of Oregon faculty and our AAU peers, nor do they make up for the high rates of inflation experienced over the last few years. In addition, merit raises leave out a significant portion of our most precariously situated faculty, take an inordinate amount of faculty and administrator time, and perpetuate inequities in many units.
Faculty wages at the UO are not just an economic issue for faculty. Until they are brought in line with other AAU institutions they represent a real danger to the academic standing of our university. The administration has made clear that they are not worried about the impact of their financial planning on recruitment and retention of faculty. Anecdotally, we have seen that they should be. If the administration is not going to willingly invest in the educational and research missions of the university, we must compel them.
We stand behind our original, well-researched salary proposal and will present our counterproposal on Thursday. However, we are at a point in bargaining where logical, well-presented arguments are less motivating to the administration than collective action will be.
If we can show we are serious enough about our demands now, we can avert a more disruptive job action later. For now, we ask that you come to bargaining to help fill the room, grab one of our new T-shirts, and keep tabs on what the admin team is saying at the table. Feel free to do some grading and check your email as we go. Afterward, join the bargaining team at the UA Union Hall (603 E. 13th Ave.) for an end-of-term happy hour/bargaining debrief.
Why are we waging this fight?
This is our university. We do not have to accept continually being asked to do more while being paid less in real terms. We do not have to stand idly by while recruitment and retention suffer from a lack of vision that allows the academic standing of our programs to falter. For our students, for our colleagues, for ourselves, and for our institution: let's demand better.