They may be the youngest strikers in Oregon history. On April 28, as many as 4,000 undergraduate student workers at University of Oregon went on strike, shutting down university dining halls — and an active construction site.
Student workers voted to unionize in October 2023. The bargaining unit includes undergraduate workers all over campus, including dorm resident advisors, library and research assistants, tutors, and dining hall workers. Their union University of Oregon Student Workers (UOSW) — a local of United Auto Workers — negotiated for more than 11 months without reaching agreement on a first contract.
At the end of the final bargaining session April 27, the two sides were still far from agreement, bargaining team member Izzie Marshall told the Labor Press. UOSW wants a minimum starting wages of $18.50 to $19.50 an hour, depending on the job, and across-the-board annual raises of 5%. UO is proposing starting wages of $15.44 to $16.44 an hour and annual raises of 3%. As of July 1, the lowest wage under UO’s proposal would be just 39 cents above the $15.05 area minimum wage in high-cost Eugene. University rules limit student workers to 25 hours a week.
The two sides also differ about the length of the contract: UOSW wants a two-and-a-half-year agreement, and UO wants a three-and-a-half-year deal. Most students attend just four years, and it can take a year or more for new students to find their way to getting active with the union, so a three-year contract could cripple the union’s continuity.
A third sticking point is UO’s refusal to agree to arbitration as the last step in a grievance process for enforcing the contract. Marshall says that would leave an anti-harassment clause in the contract unenforceable.
Other campus unions have contract clauses that obligate members to cross strike picket lines of other bargaining units. That includes professors as well as SEIU Local 503, which represents permanent support workers including some cafeteria workers.
But striking undergraduate student workers appealed to construction workers for solidarity, and they got it. Pickets went up as early as 5 a.m. outside a massive new science building that’s under construction. According to a construction union representative, union construction workers honored the pickets and stayed off the job.
The two sides were set to meet again April 30, after this went to press.
