The Spring Layoffs
In the spring round, eleven Career faculty were laid off in CAS and two in the College of Education. To accomplish these layoffs, the administration invoked Article 16 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, giving notice to Career faculty in both colleges. However, the administration refused to provide the Union with information regarding all the layoffs, citing personnel and privacy concerns. Instead, the administration insisted that the Union should be notified of layoffs by affected faculty members; once they had done so, the administration said it would provide us with the justifications that are required under Article 16.
There is no basis in Article 16 (or any other article) for this condition. United Academics is the sole and exclusive representative of everyone in the bargaining unit, union members as well as non-members, and the administration is obliged by the CBA to provide United Academics with full information on all of the layoffs – whether the affected faculty want them to or not. The administration’s maneuver radically undermined the ability of United Academics to contest these layoffs: under Article 16 of the CBA, United Academics may contest layoffs of Career faculty only if they are based on declarations of inadequate resources. In other words, the administration must be able to show that they lack the resources to retain each and every person whom they intend to lay off. So far, however, the administration has refused to turn over information about the particular faculty members and units affected by spring layoffs.
Furthermore, UO faculty and United Academics also enjoy certain rights under Oregon’s Public Employee Collective Bargaining Act (a.k.a. “PECBA”). During the term of a Collective Bargaining Agreement, according to PECBA, an employer must give the union prior notice of its intent to change a condition of work that imposes a bargaining obligation. This includes layoffs. The administration did not do this, which severely hampered our ability to respond to the spring round in a timely manner: United Academics only learned of them when everyone else did. In order to remedy this violation, we have demanded that the dispute be submitted for arbitration – the standard procedure for this sort of conflict – on an expedited schedule, first to address the procedural failings and then the layoffs themselves. We have also demanded that the administration agree to bargaining over the impact of the spring layoffs, a right that is also guaranteed to us by PECBA. We will keep you updated on how that process plays out.
We also filed two grievances related to the layoffs:
1. Information Sharing
First, we have filed a grievance against the administration for failing to inform United Academics of the policies that would be used to guide layoff decisions. Like PECBA, Article 6 of the CBA requires the administration to inform the Union any time there is a change in policy that materially affects the working conditions of any bargaining unit member. In this instance, however, the administration failed to provide United Academics with the mandated advance notice of a critical policy that it utilized in determining which faculty members to select for layoff. These layoffs, of course, will substantially affect the working conditions of many faculty, who may be expected to absorb the work previously performed by those who were laid off. This, too, would violate the CBA.
2. Notification
Second, we have filed a grievance against the administration for its failure to inform United Academics of the faculty members and units affected by the layoffs. This grievance is in addition to the grievance described above. We are prepared to take this grievance to arbitration in the likely event that the administration denies it. We are also prepared to file an Unfair Labor Practice for the latter should we not find a way to engage in this matter through expedited arbitration, as PECBA and the Collective Bargaining Agreement demand.
None of these fights will be easy. While we do have tools at our disposal, the language in Article 16 and the general precarity of Career faculty at the UO – a precarity that the administration has been reluctant to minimize through every round of bargaining – makes it difficult to prevent layoffs under this clause. However, given the administration’s procedural lapses, we hope that an arbitrator will aid us in pushing back against at least some of these cuts. United Academics’ lawyer is in contact with the university's general counsel and we will be presenting briefs on the spring round soon.
The Fall Layoffs
As everyone now knows, the administration is threatening another round of cuts, this time invoking Article 25 of the CBA, which stipulates the conditions under which tenure-related bargaining unit members can be laid off as a result of program eliminations and/or reductions. These layoffs will likely affect both pre-tenure and tenured faculty. The framing is crucial: the administration may not cherry-pick faculty to lay off. Instead, any and all layoffs must be the consequence of pedagogical or programmatic reforms, implemented to adapt to changes in higher education generally. Article 25 cannot and has never been used as a remedy for financial difficulties – as it is now being used to justify the fall layoffs.
With all this in mind, United Academics has taken two measures:
1. Impact Bargaining
As with the spring layoffs, United Academics has demanded that the fall layoffs be subject to bargaining between the administration and the union. The good news is that the administration has agreed to bargaining the impact of the fall layoffs. In most respects, this process will resemble the bargaining process we recently completed to revise and renew the CBA. We are now in the process of negotiation with the administration on the time, place, and manner in which bargaining sessions will take place. As soon as we have settled these questions, we will let everyone know when and where bargaining will take place.
2. “Structural Deficits”
United Academics is also challenging the notion of a broad "structural deficit." The administration only began speaking publicly of structural deficits during the last few months of Spring term. We are and will continue to do what is within our power to push back against this new threat. United Academics strongly believe that with the largest incoming class the university has ever experienced and with the endless series of fundraising victories trumpeted by the administration, the real structural deficit is not economic but a business-as-usual attitude on the administration’s part. The administration has so far failed to engage in any creative thinking or shared sacrifice to alleviate minor budget deficits – such as buyouts, salary reductions for top officials, or fundraising endeavors that sustain the university’s core educational mission. Prevailing in this type of case is challenging, given the deference accorded to management under state labor law. Even so, UA intends to fight.
Our demand to bargain will also include proposals to shift the burden of cost-cutting away from the people who fulfill the university’s fundamental educational and research missions. The cuts that have been hinted at will do everlasting damage to our institution, changing the very nature of our University.
We Need Your Help
But we cannot do it all alone. Here are some things you can do to join the effort:
1. Show Up, Speak Out
United Academics has already held one Town Hall to address concerns around the layoffs and we expect to hold many more. The turnout for our first Town Hall was fantastic – well over a hundred, despite the summer doldrums.
This coming week there will be two listening sessions, scheduled for Tuesday, August 19, at 2:00 pm and Wednesday, August 20, 10:00 am. If you would like to attend in person, please come to United Academics’ office at 603 E 13th Avenue or join us online via Zoom. [The same Zoom link will work for both sessions].
We are also working on more Town Halls for later in August and September; we are hoping to schedule the first of these during the first week (September 1-5) and after the administration sends out layoff notices. Please keep an eye out for further information on those meetings.
2. Get Involved, Join the CAT
If you would like to get involved more actively, please join the Contract Action Team. The “CAT” has been meeting regularly all through the summer months to organize and mobilize faculty in anticipation of the layoffs. There is a ton of work to do, and the CAT can use all the help they can get. Its next meeting will be on Tuesday, August 19, at 12:00 noon at United Academics’ office. You can also join online via Zoom.
There are other ways you can get involved, too – by becoming a union steward for your department or unit, or by becoming a representative of your unit to the United Academics Representative Assembly, which meets twice per term. If you are interested, please reach out to United Academics at info@uauoregon.org.
3. Make Some Noise
United Academics are working on a strategy for news media and will be implementing it shortly. This will include social media, op-eds in local newspapers, and outreach to local, state, and national media, to say nothing of our ongoing interactions with local, state, and national representatives and elected officials. But protest should not come from the union alone. The more folks make noise, the more likely it is that the general public will discover what is going on at the UO, and the more likely legislators will take note of the damage to the university’s core educational and research missions. Among other things, we urge everyone to:
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Write to your dean and/or Provost Long: anyone and everyone affected by the layoffs has the right to protest; the more administrators hear about the impact of their actions, the stronger our cause will be.
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Write editorials for local newspapers – The Register-Guard, the Eugene Weekly, the Oregonian, the Statesman Journal in Salem.
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Write to members of the UOs Board of Trustees: they must be fully informed of the harm done to the institution for which they are responsible.
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Write to national education media outlets, such as The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, or even national newspapers like The New York Times or The Washington Post.
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Write or call your state representatives and state senators: they need to hear from UA members and they have told us that the more they hear from faculty members, the better equipped they will be to intervene. If you’re not sure who your representatives are, send UA a note and we’ll help you out.
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Write or call your congressional representatives and senators: for all the talk of structural deficits in Oregon, the crisis in higher education is national, affects the future livelihood of all Americans, and demands a comprehensive, national response.
With your input at this week’s listening sessions, United Academics will be assembling a list of talking points for faculty to use in editorials, in letters to representatives, and in conversations with faculty, friends, students, and fellow Eugenians. Keep an eye out for further communications on that, too.