Introducing Your Bargaining Team!
 
Over the summer, dozens of your colleagues from all corners of the university worked together to review information from the bargaining survey and notes from department meetings to identify faculty priorities for bargaining. They also researched other faculty contracts, unearthed UO policies, and formulated approaches to address our priorities. For more information on the priorities and approaches your colleagues identified, see the article on Bargaining Priorities below.
 
In addition to researching and drafting contract language, your colleagues also spent the summer looking for faculty who would be willing to represent United Academics at the bargaining table. Being on a bargaining team is a huge job, especially when bargaining a first contract. In September, interested faculty members began meeting together to learn what it means to be on a team and exactly what kind of commitment being on the team is.
 
Fortunately, a number of people were willing to put their names forward and make that commitment. These are the people who will represent us at the table:

  • Susan Anderson, Professor, German and Scandinavian
  • Ron Bramhall, Senior Instructor, Lundquist College of Business
  • Yvonne Braun, Associate Professor, Women’s and Gender Studies/International Studies
  • John Davidson, Instructor, Political Science
  • Deborah Green, Associate Professor, Religious Studies
  • Judith Kenner, Research Associate, Psychology
  • Deborah Olson, Instructor, Special Education
  • Scott Pratt, Professor, Philosophy
  • Gina Psaki, Professor, Romance Languages

Additionally, Bill Harbaugh from Economics will act as an official consultant to the team.
 
While the bargaining team will be speaking for us at the table, they will need the support of all faculty in order to secure the best contract possible. Winning a good contract will require strong and visible support from faculty across campus. Here are some ways that you can get involved to help achieve a strong contract:

  • Build a strong membership: Sign a membership card if you have not and encourage others to join if you have.
  • Stay informed: Check the United Academics website and Facebook page for updates. All United Academics bargaining proposals will be posted to the website once they have been proposed at the table.
  • Attend bargaining sessions: Bargaining sessions will be open to all faculty members, and everyone is encouraged to attend.
  • Show your solidarity: Wear your United Academics sticker or button, hang a door sign on your office door, and attend events and rallies.
  • Join the Contract Action Team: The Contract Action Team will work to make sure all members have access to information about progress in negotiations and to help involve our colleagues in solidarity actions. Email us at info@uauoregon.org if you’re interested in joining the Contract Action Team and helping to secure the best contract possible.

If you have questions about bargaining or the process, you can always contact the team at bargaining@uauoregon.org.
 
 
Bargaining Priorities

Divided into ten work groups, faculty members developed 36 articles encompassing over 75 different ideas, ranging from such broad topics as workload to the finer points of promotion policy.  The Bargaining Caucus—made up of liaisons from the work groups and members of the Organizing Committee—compiled these ideas into a nearly complete and cohesive group of proposals for the Bargaining Team to finalize and present at the table.
 
While this work is ongoing, everyone got a preview of their work at the Bargaining Information Luncheon on October 18. There was a table for each work group, and large posters were at each table describing the issues that the work groups tackled over the summer. Faculty were invited to talk with work group members about the drafted proposals, give feedback, and indicate which issues were most important to them.
 
Through it all, the work groups, Bargaining Caucus, and Bargaining Team have been guided by our mission: to use our collective power to negotiate a contract that strengthens the quality of research and education at the University of Oregon. They have worked hard to create proposals that reflect our shared values:

  • Institutional transparency
  • Professional respect
  • Faculty voice
  • Stability

More specifically, in negotiations we will focus on attaining a contract that enables UO to recruit and retain high quality faculty by establishing competitive salaries, stable working conditions, and access to benefits for all faculty; provides for meaningful faculty voice in the creation and implementation of transparent, enforceable policies related to evaluation, promotion, and workload; supports excellence and innovation in research and education with adequate facilities and manageable class sizes.
 
 
Bargaining to Begin Soon
 
On October 17, your Bargaining Team sent a letter to President Gottfredson formally requesting that the two parties begin the process of fashioning a collective bargaining agreement together. This letter was both the kick-off of the formal bargaining process and the culmination of a summer of hard work.
 
In the letter to President Gottfredson, our Bargaining Team indicated a desire to establish a bargaining schedule designed to move bargaining along in short order, with a process in place to ensure that bargaining is both quick and smooth, reaching accord with minimum disruption to campus life. The process, known as binding fact-finding, would provide a reasoned, expeditious means of resolving our negotiations should our bargaining team and the administration fail to reach agreement this academic year.
 
In light of the misconception that the certification of our union has delayed or prevented the implementation of raises, our bargaining team also formally requested that the administration raise faculty salaries by 3.5% for this academic year, while reserving our right to negotiate other components of salary.
 
If you have questions about the bargaining process, you can contact the team at bargaining@uauoregon.org.