University of Oregon grad students ended their first-ever strike Dec. 10 after the university increased its wage offer and improved the terms of a new medical and paternity leave fund. Strikers will not have their pay docked for the eight days they were out on the picket line.
The tentative agreement was hashed out in a marathon 22-hour bargaining session that went through the night. Members will vote next week whether to ratify the tentative agreement.
Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation (GTFF), also known as American Federation of Teachers Local 3544, represents about 1,400 UO graduate students who receive stipends to teach undergraduate classes. The strike began Dec. 2 — a week before final exams.
Before the strike, UO was proposing annual raises of 5 and 4 percent over the two-year union contract, and the union was proposing 5.5 percent each year. But the two sides settled on 5 percent a year. That’s above the likely rate of inflation, though less than what the union said is necessary to live in high-cost Eugene. Graduate teaching fellows work a maximum of half-time for a minimum pay of $4,090 to $4,878 per academic quarter. If the deal is ratified, the first year’s raise will be retroactive to Sept. 15, when the previous contract expired.
The other issue of contention was paid leave for a serious illness or the birth or adoption of a child. Eugene City Council passed a paid sick leave ordinance earlier this year, but it doesn’t apply to UO workers because they’re considered employees of the state. GTFF wanted a guaranteed two-week paid leave benefit in the contract, but in the end agreed to a memorandum of understanding committing UO to create a hardship fund. The fund will provide up to $1,500 for a grad student who has a new child and up to $1,000 for a serious medical event. It will be open to all graduate students, not just those who teach classes and belong to the union. UO committed to $50 year per grad student to fill the fund, which would amount to about $150,000 a year. Rules for the fund will be drawn up by a seven-member committee, with two members each appointed by GTFF and the UO administration, one member by the faculty senate, and two non-working graduate students elected by the graduate student body. When the dean denies an applicant’s claim, the committee will also hear appeals and make non-binding recommendations to the university president, who will make the final decision.
“It’s good that we have increased oversight, but we would have been happier with a guarantee,” said GTFF vice president Richard Wagner, a graduate teaching fellow in the Physics department.
“People are every excited to get back to work,” Wagner said. “A lot of members were very torn having to walk away from their students in order to stand up for their colleagues.”
The strike threw plans for final exams into chaos. Grad students teach about a third of classes at UO, and in classes taught by professors, they lead discussion groups, run labs, and proctor exams. The UO administration tried to get academics and others to do the work of strikers, with mixed results. Exams went forward in some classes and were cancelled in others, with students getting grades based on previous work. In still other cases, exams were made optional.
“It was a very messy fight, and it’s going to be a tough road to get trust back,” Wagner said.
