Organizers seeking to unionize the University faculty are holding two meetings to address the issue this week.
The group hosting the meetings officially calls itself the United Academics of the University of Oregon and has three full-time organizers and an office space next to the office of the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation.
The organization, started this year, is a joint effort between the American Association of University Professors and the American Federation of Teachers.
The first meeting of the week, “Why Unionize at an AAU Institution,” will be held at 3 p.m. today in the Ben Linder Room of the EMU. Panelists who will appear at the meeting include professors from the State University of New York, Buffalo, the University of Florida, and Wayne State University.
The second meeting, “What is the Role of the Senate on a Unionized Campus? The SUNY Buffalo Experience,” will be held at 4 p.m. Wednesday in the Knight Library Browsing Room.
UAUO organizer Dennis Ziemer said the group will address issues affecting faculty including the relatively low pay of University professors compared to other institutions.
The university has the lowest average faculty salary out of the 34 public universities in the American Association of Universities — an invitation-only group of the top research colleges in the country. According to a study earlier in the year by the AAU, the average faculty salary at the University of Oregon is $73,300, well below that of the next lowest public AAU school, the University of Missouri, whose average faculty salary is $81,600.
“We’re a group of employees trying to get collective bargaining rights from the University,” Ziemer said. Ziemer is not a University faculty member or employee. Rather, he said he is “working with the employees of the University.”
The AFT is an affiliated international union of the AFL-CIO, one of the largest and most influential unions in the country.
PROFESSORS WILL MEET ABOUT FORMING A UNION ON:
“Why Unionize at an AAU Institution?”
- Where: EMU Ben Linder Room
- When: Tuesday, Oct. 6, 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.
“What is the Role of the Senate on a Unionized Campus? The SUNY Buffalo Experience”
- Where: Knight Library Browsing Room
- When: Wednesday, Oct. 7, 4 p.m. to 5:20 p.m.
