Opinion: With negotiations between the graduate students and UO admin falling through, a strike is coming
———-
On Oct. 16, the Graduate Teaching Fellow Federation, which represents Graduate Educators on campus, reached an impasse while bargaining for their new contract with UO. They were unable to get UO’s bargaining team to agree to terms of higher pay for all GEs as well as greater protections for international GEs and caregivers. Now, both parties are in the middle of what’s called a “cooling off period” where they each have time to decide what supervenes.
“Our cooling off period has been a heating up period for us,” Matt McIntosh, vice president of bargaining for GTFF, said.
Compared to 32 peer institutions around the country, the wages UO pays its graduate employees are dead last. This is shameful, yet not at all surprising.
At most universities, the pay of graduate teachers doesn’t reflect the cost of living. According to a study in the science journal “Nature,” it was found that only 2% out of 178 higher education institutions can guarantee their graduates’ wages will be above the cost of living.
“Bargaining showed us just how little the university thinks our labor is worth,” McIntosh said.
It took seven months for UO administrators to agree to give gender-diverse GEs protections against misgendering in the workplace. No agreement was reached, however, because wages and other protections for diverse GEs, however, continue to be a sticking point.
“It’s overwhelmingly clear that workers are sick of being treated with disrespect in terms of paychecks, our humanity and rights in the workplace,” McIntosh said.
GEs teach classes, grade assignments, help run research labs and support undergraduates in a myriad of other ways. They are a central part of what keeps the university running and greatly assist undergraduate students during their time in college. GEs do their best to transcend academic assistance, but with so much financial strain, it’s hard for many of them to deliver the best quality of education.
“So many of us face crippling financial circumstances,” McIntosh said. “But the university is proving time and time again that they would prefer to cut costs than improve student learning.”
GTFF recently finished collecting votes for strike authorization on Nov. 4. This vote asked whether GTFF’s members would be ready to go on strike if necessary. With 90% of the union members voting, the results were 97% in favor.
“A strike could accomplish the best contract in GTFF history,” McIntosh said. “We’re spending our time getting ready to show them what we’re worth.”
GTFF will do what it takes to get basic respect and fair pay. GEs on strike will undoubtedly disrupt academics, but that’s the point. Classes and discussion sections will be left untaught, papers ungraded and research labs without adequate staffing. A strike isn’t pleasant for anyone, but the effect it creates will have to make the university finally act. UO cannot keep pushing aside the basic dignity of their graduate workers.
The labor movement at UO doesn’t stop at GTFF. UO Student Workers, the undergraduate student union, recently secured certification and will likely start their own bargaining in the near future. Service Employees International Union, which represents 1,500 classified staff on campus, began negotiations with the university at the end of October.
Across the board, unions are fighting for better working conditions and pay for many of the people who are on UO’s payroll.
“It’s a clarion call to our labor cousins at UO Student Workers, SEIU, and United Academics UO, all of whom are fighting for the same privileges, freedoms and democratic workplaces,” McIntosh said.