More than 1,000 graduate student workers at Oregon State University (OSU) went on strike on Nov. 12 after more than a year of negotiations over a new contract, and remained on strike three weeks later as this issue went to press. It’s the first strike in the 25-year history of the Coalition of Graduate Employees (CGE), also known as American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Local 6069. The strike led to cancellation of many classes, labs, and discussion sections taught by graduate students.
The union is seeking a 30% increase to the minimum salary for graduate student workers.
Current minimum rates work out to $25.41 per hour for a graduate student worker who is supposed to work 16 hours per week.
Under the previous contract, graduate student workers can only work up to half time. But the positions are salaried, and most of the graduate teaching assistants and research assistants end up working more hours than they’re paid for, said CGE executive council member Rachael Garcia.
OSU’s latest offer, which it made Nov. 25, would raise the minimum salary by 13% and bring the minimum up to $28.72 per hour. The contract sets the minimums for first-year employees, but returning workers get annual raises, and individual departments can offer higher pay. The current average pay is $31.68 per hour, according to the university.
Corvallis is the most rent-burdened city in Oregon according to the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development. More than 39% of renters in Corvallis spend at least half of their income on rent.
The two sides have also been at odds over the length of the contract, with the union seeking a three-year contract term and the university pushing for a five-year contract up until the strike.
“If we let that happen to future students, that means they can have an entire time here without the chance to bargain for things that come up,” Garcia said. CGE members include graduate teaching assistants and graduate research assistants working toward their master’s degree or Ph.D. Master’s degrees typically take two years, while doctoral degrees take four years or more.
Garcia said there are too many unknowns to agree to a long contract, with rent rising each year and President-elect Donald Trump pledging to dissolve the Department of Education, which oversees the federal student loan program and enforces civil rights laws in schools. CGE’s contracts have typically lasted four years, with a partial re-opener in the middle of the contract term to allow for bargaining on up to four articles (typically salary and three other subjects.)
Before the strike, the university’s offer was a five-year contract with no partial re-opener. But at a Nov. 25 mediation session, it offered a three-year contract.
OSU spokesperson Lanesha Reagan did not respond to questions about the university’s budget and enrollment numbers or how many classes were impacted by the strike.
“The university has been bargaining for a contract that both honors the important work of graduate employees and recognizes that as a steward of public funds and student tuition dollars, OSU must meet its obligation to manage resources appropriately to serve the university’s mission,” Reagan said in an emailed statement to the Labor Press.
Bargaining has taken more than a year. Garcia said the whole process has felt like a lot of stalling, starting with the university’s bargaining team taking six months to respond to the union’s first proposal.
The union did “big pushes” before the strike in hopes of avoiding a strike altogether, Garcia said. “We did teach-ins and bigger action items like that to try to get the administration to listen to us.”
During the strike, in addition to traditional picket lines and marches around campus, union members have hosted organizing blitzes, walking around campus and visiting the offices of other university workers to discuss the strike; hosted work-ins where union members worked on their homework; and protested at an OSU football game.
“There’s a lot of creativity and figuring out different ways to be subversive and to keep energy up on the line,” Garcia said.
