Dear Colleagues,
PSU workers are a major part of making Portland a vibrant city. While PSU-AAUP is at the bargaining table facing Administrative pushback on rights for members facing layoffs; while graduate employees in the Graduate Employee Union (GEU) are facing stall tactics in contract negotiations; and while Administration refuses to acknowledge grievances put forward by PSUFA, our part-time faculty union–PSU Administration’s proposal for a fine and performing arts center on campus is moving forward.
At its August 14th meeting, the Portland City Council passed a resolution forming a joint committee between the city, PSU Administration, and the Halprin Landscape Conservancy to develop a mutually beneficial plan to replace the Keller Auditorium. This committee will report back to Portland City Council on October 9th, 2024.
Many unions–including PSU-AAUP–provided public comment regarding the resolution, calling for organized labor to retain jobs and for labor concerns to take a central role in the considerations of the joint committee’s report and plan. (Public comment at the meeting begins at the one-hour mark. PSU-AAUP public comment is provided, in full, below.)
While there are no certainties about PSU’s proposed performing arts center being developed on PSU property, this is a major step in that direction. Meanwhile, the job stability of SEIU-represented workers at the University Place Hotel, the site for the proposed performing arts building, is tenuous. What’s more, should the performing arts center move forward, improvements to the Branford Price Millar Library will be bumped into position number two for capital improvements, with no estimated date for providing its needed upgrades.
PSU Administration and its Board of Trustees have put an enormous amount of creative thinking, vocal public support, and political advocacy in Salem and in Portland behind its development proposal to replace the Keller Auditorium and to revitalize downtown on the backs of its workers.
Let me be clear: a performing arts center would be good for PSU. This is not a zero-sum game. Administration can support a performing arts center and provide job stability, support, and respect for PSU workers. As such, PSU-AAUP urges PSU Administration to show the same veracity of effort and support of its workers as it has for its performing arts center proposal. PSU workers are a major part of making Portland a vibrant city.
Any future replacement of the Keller Auditorium must be developed, built, and fully staffed by union labor. At the same time, PSU Administration must support the workers it has now. PSU-AAUP workers deserve contracts with rights for laid-off workers; GEU workers deserve to be met with respect at the bargaining table and a fair contract; and PSUFA workers deserve for their grievances to be heard by Administration.
The way we win is by showing up. It is up to you and your co-workers to show up to support our contract negotiations. RSVP to help pack our August 22nd bargaining session and help turn our power into a contract that properly values everything we do to make PSU run.
PSU Administration wants to let knowledge serve the city, and PSU can only serve the city if Administration protects, uplifts, and respects the workers who make our city the vibrant place it is.
In Solidarity,
Emily Ford
PSU-AAUP President
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My name is Emily Ford and I am the President of the Portland State University chapter of the American Association of University Professors–the labor union representing over 1,100 full-time faculty workers at PSU.
I am here in support of this proposed resolution. It is a vision that supports PSU’s motto: let knowledge serve the city. I am also here to center concerns for organized labor in our city. It is union workers who serve the city with their knowledge, efforts, and dedication to PSU’s students and to the Portland community.
A joint committee exploring PSU’s development proposal must take into consideration the effects that this project has on the workers that make PSU run as well as the workers who would build and staff this auditorium . Labor concerns need to be central to the committee’s discussions and integrated into its report and proposed developments unveiled in October. The committee must plan to retain and support PSU’s SEIU represented University Place Hotel workers. It must protect actors, musicians, theater technicians, and others that make the current Keller facility run. It must take into account trade workers who will turn the vision into reality. And it must plan for each and every job in a new facility to be a union job, with dignity and respect, from custodial work to performers and everyone in between.
Over the past year we, the 1,100 union-represented PSU faculty, have watched as the PSU Administration and its Board of Trustees have put their entire force of political advocacy, creative thinking, and full-throated support behind the development of a PSU performing arts facility. At the same time PSU Administration has been and is pushing back against layoff protections at the bargaining table with PSU-AAUP, while also stalling contract negotiations with its Graduate Employee Union (GEU) and refusing to recognize grievances filed by the university’s part-time faculty union, PSU Faculty Association (PSUFA). This proposed committee must hold PSU Administration accountable to support workers with the same full-throated veracity that has gotten it this far in the development process to replace the Keller Auditorium. It’s the workers who make this city vibrant.
Help PSU live up to its motto. PSU can only serve the city if the City Council and PSU Administration protect, uplift, and respect the workers who make our city the vibrant place it is.