Every minute spent discussing faculty union negotiations at the University of Oregon is another minute billed to an external lawfirm. After five months gathered around a bargaining table, faculty contract negotiations that started between the University and United Academics — the faculty union — in December of last year are still in the process of fervent discussion.
Most recently, debates have centered on the union’s proposal for a salary increase of 3.5 percent, an issue that has yet to be mediated by the faculty and University representatives. Amidst the discussion of faculty pay looms another billing question: how much money has the bargaining process cost the University, and how more will it spend before it’s over?
According to a billing statement revealed last Thursday on the UO Matters blog, the university has paid more than $300,000 to the Harrang Long Gary Rudnick P.C. law firm in legal fees over the last year. Sharon Rudnick, partner in the firm and attorney leading the University team in bargaining negotiations, claims that a total of $266,245.50, has been billed as a direct result of  her employment.
Rudnick was originally contracted last January to look over United Academics’ petition for official union recognition and has since worked on researching, drafting and analysis of University bargain proposals while working with deans to educate them in the bargaining process and mediating the terms of negotiation procedures.

According to Rudnick, the University funds that pay her bills are pulled directly from an administrative fund contributed to by general revenue from a variety of university departments.

In comparison, the United Academics team is operated by the union dues and the volunteer efforts of professors, research assistants, emeriti and instructors that make up its constituency. According to Yanna Carroll, the National Representative for the American Federation of Teachers, legal support for United Academics is provided by lawyers from two national unions: the American Federation of Teachers and the American Association of University Professors, as well as occasional paid consultation regarding proper adherence to Oregon labor from with adjunct law professor Mike Tadesco.
“The difference is that the University of Oregon is using public dollars to pay for all of their representation,” Carroll said. “United Academics is affiliated with national unions…and we provide support to the bargaining team.”
As Union negotiations are expected to continue, with meetings scheduled through the end of this term at the very least, the question remains as to how much more money the University will spend on legal representation against its own faculty, an issue especially poignant in light of statistical evidence that UO educators are among the lowest paid as compared to their peers.
Their current stalemate is negotiating a satisfactory pay raise.
Rudnick, who is hopeful that negotiations will be settled before the beginning of fall term, believes expenditure on both sides is a necessary investment in perfecting a contract that will serve as the underlying infrastructure of university academics.
“Both sides obviously see this as a very important process to be devoting so many resources to the process,” she said. “These negotiations…will lay the foundation for an ongoing relationship between the university and the faculty.”