After months of contract negotiations, the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation has announced it will strike if an agreement is not reached with the University of Oregon by Jan. 17.
In a letter posted to its website on Jan. 5 , GTFF said that the university has failed to meet the needs of graduate employees with its wage proposals, such as increasing salary, reducing fees and coverage of special equipment.
GTFF’s members previously voted in favor of a strike in November 2023 when its members participated in a vote.Voters were in favor of a strike with 97% of the vote, with 90% of the members participating.
“We’ve been bargaining with the UO administration since March 2023,” Rosa Inocencio Smith, vice president for member communications at GTFF, said. “While we’ve made some really significant strides in negotiations with [UO], salaries are still on the table.”
On Nov. 30, 2023, GTFF “tentatively agreed” to a contract package from UO, but, after reviewing the university’s wage offer, determined the proposal did not meet the “economic stability” demand of their bargaining platform.
Inocencio Smith said that the most recent proposal from UO, to equalize minimum pay rates across all GE experience levels, would leave behind workers at higher levels that have seen the cost of living rise.
“Our members have been very clear that all GEs need a fair wage increase,” Inocencio Smith said. “We have also been very clear that the university has had plenty of opportunity to avert a strike by providing fair wages for their employees.”
According to an email sent to UO faculty by interim provost Karen Ford, deans and directors of academic units have been working with the office of the provost to create “academic continuity plans” for a course where a GE is an instructor of record, leads a lab or discussion or provides grading support.
“We respect the right of GEs to conduct a legal strike,” Ford wrote. “In the meantime, our role as a public institution of higher education includes the responsibility of providing the best possible education for our students, despite a work stoppage.”
Inocencio Smith said that a strike would demonstrate the significant contribution that graduate employee labor makes on the university, both in their jobs as instructors but also as research assistants.
Inocencio Smith said that GTFF sees the strike as a benefit to the university community as a whole.
“It’s important to us that your instructors are fairly paid, but they’re not exhausted from second or third jobs, and that they’re not distracted because they can’t put food on their tables.”
The next mediation session between GTFF and UO is scheduled for Jan. 11.
Around 100 graduate researcher employees participated in a walkout demonstration on Nov. 29, 2023 in Willamette Hall. (Molly McPherson/Emerald)
