Undergraduate student workers at the University of Oregon ended a 10-day strike after reaching tentative agreement on a first contract on May 7.
The ratification vote was scheduled to end Wednesday, May 14, after this issue went to press. The contract would apply to roughly 4,000 workers represented by University of Oregon Student Workers (UOSW).
“We won grievance arbitration, which gives us real power as student workers to be able to take serious claims like harassment and discrimination to a neutral third party arbitrator if the university doesn’t fix the issue,” said bargaining team member Izzie Marshall.
The proposed contract would raise wages to at least $16 per hour, which is $1.30 more than Oregon’s current minimum wage for that region of the state. Workers will get a 2.5% raise on July 1, 2026, and July 1, 2027. The contract runs through March 31, 2028.
The union sought to get workers paid twice a month, but the tentative agreement maintains the existing monthlong pay periods. The agreement includes emergency pay advances, meaning that student workers can receive 60% of their earned wages early in the case of an emergency.
The agreement also includes paid sick time for all student workers, including student employees receiving Federal Work-Study. Federal Work-Study funds can’t be used for sick time, but some higher education institutions opt to pay for sick leave with other funds.
“We all stood together shoulder to shoulder and forced the university to take us seriously,” Marshall said. “The contract really is the foundation so we can keep fighting harder for contracts and our working rights.”
