Today the Cudd administration -at the urging of developer trustees with large conflicts of interest- gave notice of layoff letters effective June 15th to 17 of our colleagues. These unnecessary and heartbreaking layoffs of beloved colleagues come after the Board of Trustees shut down questions from the faculty BoT representative inside the November 21st BoT meeting about whether administration was accounting for the impacts of layoffs on student retention. These layoffs come as there’s a pending grievance for contract violations in the way the Cudd administration handled these layoffs. Additionally, with over 210 million in reserves and over 150 million in the PSU foundation, these layoffs per economist Howard Bunsis, were unnecessary.
In bargaining, the Cudd administration continues to assert that they cannot agree to contractual language on layoff protections because they need “flexibility” and that they want to layoff colleagues outside of our contract, on a “case-by-case” basis. At the bargaining table, the Cudd administration proposed eroding our contract so that contractual provisions and discussions with AAUP would apply when layoffs affected more than 10 people in any given unit.
The Cudd administration has called for “cutting to the bone,” and called on-campus labor unions, our contracts, and shared governance “operational complexities.” They have two more years of cutting to the bone planned and to stop them we need every department to start getting strike ready. Depending on how mediation goes January 15th and 22nd, March 9th is the earliest date we might be forced to go on strike to win the conditions our students, colleagues, and families deserve.
Actions this coming month to win a fair contract and stop the cuts:
- Admin stalling a new contract and thereby our COLAs
Our contract expires at the end of the month. If the Cudd administration’s stalling has not allowed us to finalize a new contract, our cost of living increases will be delayed. All over campus our colleagues will be using a proven strategy called “work to rule” to speed up bargaining. This short explainer details how to follow PSU rules so closely that effectively it becomes a legally protected action to win the contract we deserve.
- Departmental bargaining update meetings
Make sure your department is ready to escalate our contract campaign to win the conditions we deserve. Check in with your unit representative to see when your bargaining update meeting will be.
- Take action now:
Email PSU Board of Trustees Finance and Administration chair and Portland real estate developer Sheryl Manning and ask her to prioritize fundraising and investment in PSU faculty, staff, students not concrete and steel. sheryl.manning@gmail.com
And email President Cudd directly here presidentsoffice@pdx.edu, president@pdx.edu
- 1/24 Board of Trustees meeting:
The last BoT meeting was so full campus security stopped allowing members and students inside. The number of attendees helped inspire multiple Board members to call for an independent reconciliation of the discrepancies between the Cudd administration’s financial numbers and the Bunsis report. RSVP here to make sure Board of Trustee members continue to ask critical questions and recruit your coworkers and students to join too.
- Join the Strike Committee!
In over 100 hours of bargaining, the administration refused to negotiate wage increases and other economic pieces of our contract. Due to the administration’s intransigence at the bargaining table, our bargaining team asked for mediation (more on that below). If you’re interested in helping get your department or other departments strike ready, email aaup@psuaaup.net or fill out this form to get involved.
- Recruit your students:
At the conclusion of classes or student appointments, members are encouraged to signal the class or appointment is over and the ability for students to leave or voluntarily stay for updates about important developments on campus. If students choose to stay, sharing fact based information about the cuts is recommended.
- The number of NTTF notices of layoffs: 94
- The size of Cudd administration’s salary reduction targets for this year: $12.5M
- The size of PSU reserves: over $210M
- Amount spent on PSU construction since 2010: over $1 billion
- Follow student stop the cuts organizers on Instagram: @psustcc