Last Tuesday, a group of local 503 Service Workers International Union (the union representing classified workers at the University of Oregon) members and supporters walked through the UO campus, stopping along the way to speak with classified workers about their concerns with the proposed contract.
Classified workers at the seven public universities in Oregon have been negotiating for a higher paying contract since January. In August, Oregon’s Public Universities declared an impasse in negotiations. The next round of negotiations are Sept. 8-9. A move-in week strike is still a possibility.
At 2 p.m. a large crowd had gathered at the SEIU’s outpost outside Johnson Hall. Randy McCutchen, a member of the union, introduced the issues and the speakers before leading the group along East 13th Avenue to the first stop, Dux Bistro.
Along the walk people shared wage figures and news they’d heard. A common phrase was “$15 an hour.” Currently 500 service employees at the University of Oregon make less than that, roughly one third of the classified workers on campus. Another was the figure $800,000, new President Michael Schill’s salary.
At Dux Bistro, the dining facility in the LLC residential hall, Joann Malone spoke about the personal connections she’s made with students. Malone said she felt like a second mother to many of LLC’s residents. “We deal with them at their most vulnerable,” she said. “I mean, they come down here in their pajamas.”
A round of laughter stirred the crowd, then it was back to the negotiations. Malone expressed how “important it is for me to be taken care of as a worker, like we take of these students.”
The tour continued on to Oregon Hall, where Lois Yoshishige showed her 30 year certificate of employment with the university. Lois was a service employee during the strikes in 1987 and 1995. She and her co-worker Rebecca Lynn shared their frustration over the never ending contract negotiations.
“Every two years we go through this exhausting, demoralizing process management calls ‘negotiations,’” Lynn said.
The tour weaved through the north edge of campus with stops along the way, around Willamette Hall and under the Onyx Bridge, then through a backdoor into Pacific Hall. On the way, the group maintained an air of positivity.
“This is what labor is all about,” David Pinsonneault, a union representative, said. “Walking, talking, making connections, this is what being in a union is all about.”
At Pacific Hall, Paul Keats spoke about an aspect of the negotiations not often considered: wage ceilings.
Currently Oregon Public Universities has offered a 1.25 percent increase this year and 1.5 percent next year as a “cost of living adjustment,” according to SEIU. The union is holding out for 3 percent each year.
OPU has said that they would have to raise tuition in order to increase wages since they don’t receive state funding for raises.
For several years, Keats has been living on what he calls “the economic edge.” He kept the mood light though, joking about his meager lunches. “I thought I’d seen the last of peanut butter and jelly in high school, but I was wrong.”
Before the tour moved on Keats showed a graph of UO’s salary increases over the past year. He compared the administration’s rising salaries to the classified workers line, which stays almost completely flat over ten years. “If this was a cardiogram, it would be a dead patient,” he said.
The tour circled back to the center of campus, ending at the Mills International Center in the Erb Memorial Union. There were several speakers, ending with McCutchen, who reiterated how important community support was. Someone in the back of the room shouted,“How can we help?”
“Make some calls,” McCutchen said, and a pamphlet was passed out with Schill’s phone number on it.
Follow Noah McGraw on Twitter: @mcnoahmcgraw.
