Not for the first time, a state agency says University of Oregon (UO) violated workers’ rights, according to Oregon’s Employment Relations Board (ERB).
The violations stem from a union organizing campaign among undergraduate student workers in 2022 and 2023. Managers told supporters they couldn’t wear union pins, knock on doors in dorm halls to ask residents to support the union, or engage in union organizing activity while on the clock.
Last month ERB ruled that those actions violated state labor law because they discriminated against union supporters for activities that would otherwise be allowed. For example, dining hall workers were told to remove UO Student Workers Union pins from their work uniforms even though they’d been allowed to wear Pride flag pins, pronoun pins, and SEIU pins without management pushback. Two student workers were told they couldn’t talk about union organizing on the clock, even though they were allowed to study or talk about other non-work topics on the clock.
“Union activity does not stop once you are certified. Union activity, like wearing pins, collecting signatures on petitions, talking about your union, is something that will continue forever.”
Ashton Pressman
Union organizers also asked professors if they could make presentations about their campaign. UO professors sometimes let groups give short presentations during class time on topics like voter registration or student clubs. One professor who had allowed other presentations in his class initially said yes, but changed his mind after consulting with university management and seeing how overtly pro-union the presentation slides were.
Since the charges were filed with ERB, student workers won their election, went on strike for 10 days, and secured a contract for around 4,000 workers. UO argued to ERB that the union’s complaints were now irrelevant because the organizing efforts succeeded, but ERB rejected that. The agency ordered the university to cease the actions, which were deemed “unfair labor practices,” but it didn’t issue any fines.
UO Student Workers Union leader Ashton Pressman told the Labor Press the ruling will help student workers in the future if, for example, workers make pins during their next contract campaign.
“Union activity does not stop once you are certified. Union activity, like wearing pins, collecting signatures on petitions, talking about your union, is something that will continue forever,” Pressman said.
