Register Guard
August 20th, 2015
The United Academics faculty union at the University of Oregon decided to keep its eyes on the prize of a better, donor-funded university — and so has tentatively settled a new three-year contract, well ahead of the start of school.
“It takes away a potentially contentious issue as our new university president embarks on the important work of raising some big bucks to support our academic mission,” said Michael Dreiling, union president and associate professor of sociology.
In the meantime, negotiations with the Service Employees International Union that represents the UO’s 1,700 classified workers are at an impasse — and resolution appears, for the moment, out of reach.
The faculty contract, which will be up for a ratification vote in early October, calls for a 3.5 percent total jump in cost-of-living raises over the next three years and a $650 lump sum payment to each full-time faculty member this November. Also, the UO will set aside an additional amount of money, equal to 2.25 percent of the total salary pool, to be distributed as merit raises in each of the last two years.
This is the second contract negotiated by United Academics, which formed at the university in 2013. The union represents 1,800 tenured and nontenured faculty.