Over 200 total attendees: roughly 20 in person, 43 online, approximately 150 via zoom outside President Cudd’s office after the march
Help translate today’s powerful action into improved conditions by RSVPing here for our final four bargaining sessions before contract expiration including today in RMNC 316 between now and 4:30pm.
After notice of layoffs went out to over 7.5% of PSU-AAUP 1,200 represented faculty and staff, PSU-AAUP members, every on-campus union, students, and campus and community allies marched in large numbers on the administration building to demand President Cudd stop the cuts and settle a fair contract. This came after over 5,000 letters were sent to President Cudd and the Board of Trustees calling for an end to the cuts (you can send one now and recruit your colleagues, students, and community allies to do the same).
This speakout came after Administration has pushed back for months on layoff protections in bargaining including healthcare, tuition remission, and the ability to be brought back to a broad variety of PSU jobs. Non-Tenure Track Faculty, NTTF, who’ve received layoff notices spoke to the lack of these protections and the impacts of layoff notices.
“The layoff would obviously impact me directly as I have a partner and we both have kids and are caretakers for family and provide financial support to additional family members,” said Sonja Taylor, NTTF faculty in University Studies. “However, as much as I would hate to leave PSU, I believe that my time here has provided me with a valuable skill set that would transfer to many different contexts. The most devastating impact if I am laid off would be to my students.”
“Earlier this week, many of my NTTF colleagues across campus received notice that they may be laid off. This part of the administration’s ‘data-driven, value informed’ approach to financial stability,” said Matt Chorpenning, NTTF faculty in the School of Social Work. “The aftermath has included an ill-conceived letter demanding the end of University Studies and a colleague at the administrative briefing yesterday near tears begging her colleagues to accept the retirement incentive in order to save jobs. The decision to retire should be based on one’s own finances and satisfaction with their life’s work - none of us should be under pressure to retire in order to save others’ jobs. And yet this is the climate of mental and emotional instability created in the name of financial stability.”
Despite PSU-AAUP members bargaining for more than 80 hours, administration has only agreed to 5 tentative agreements on low-level issues like how many copies of the contract to print and has shown no movement on the bargaining priorities a supermajority of PSU-AAUP members voted for. This march and speakout came as bargaining is nearly 90% through the Oregon Public sector bargaining timeline, just 16 business days until Oregon’s mandated 150 days of bargaining has expired, and just 28 business days until contract expiration.
Layoff protections at the bargaining table
PSU-AAUP members' statements were so powerful that the administration team struggled to pivot to other matters. After a caucus, we began with recall language. The administration has been reluctant to expand recall rights. It is the union’s goal to give laid-off employees greater ability to rejoin PSU when there are open positions that they would be qualified to fill. Administration has been pushing to constrain the recall list to just a member’s narrowly defined job title.
So far, we are in agreement that 1) laid-off APs would be automatically placed on the recall list, 2) the recall list would be extended from one year to two years and 3) if a laid-off employee is rehired at PSU to a position below their previous level, they remain eligible for recall to their previous level.
We then shared economic interests. Management stated that they want competitive salaries, and they want to retain employees for a stable workforce. They want financial stability and to be an employer of choice, so they can meet student needs with a qualified workforce. PSU-AAUP bargaining team members added that we’d like to see, among other things, members maintain real income to keep pace with inflation, to earn equitable compensation, to have opportunities for career advancement, compensation for those who use their multilingual skills on the job and support for personal and family care responsibilities.
As we are in Interest Based Bargaining, we ended with a discussion of what else can be covered before we enter the “costing phase,” which involves the administration team sharing the amount of money available to meet economic needs, and the union showing what their economic interests might cost.
Workload protections
The union team presented what in Interest Based Bargaining is called a “trial balloon,” which proposed creating one article that addresses both faculty and APs, rather than having separate processes for the two groups. Trial balloons are interest based bargaining tactic that combines several options to try to meet the interests of both administration and union members. The trial balloon was designed to address excessive workload by, in part, providing a definition of what constitutes an excessive workload, with a different definition for each of the two groups.
The definitions listed factors that would indicate a member has been assigned an excessive workload. For example, if a faculty member’s workload impedes their achieving promotion or review criteria, or class sizes exceed disciplinary recommendations, that may indicate an excessive workload. Likewise, if APs are responsible for multiple programs or have caseload numbers in excess of industry standards, those may be indications of excessive workload that needs to be corrected. The administration team was concerned the union’s bargaining team’s workload protections would impede the administration’s right to assign work.
Parking
We started the day discussing parking and transportation. Administration contended that PSU-AAUP members needed to pick between COLA and parking and the conversation did not move anywhere.
We have four sessions left before contract expiration:
- Friday, October 18 -- (8:30am-4:30pm) -- RMNC Building, 316
- Thursday, October 24 -- (8:30am-4:30pm) -- Vanport Building, 515
- Thursday, November 7 -- (8:30am-4:30pm) -- Vanport Building, 515
- Friday, November 8 - (8:30am-4:30pm) -- RMNC Building, 316
Help translate today’s powerful action into improved working and learning conditions by RSVPing here. |
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