UA reaches a tentative agreement after 14 months of bargaining; awaiting member approval

The Daily Emerald has provided a comprehensive timeline of United Academics and UO bargaining team negotiations and a guide to what could happen next

Sasha Love

April 3, 2025

Chris Sinclair, Secretary of The United Academics of the University of Oregon, poses for a portrait before the meeting. The United Academics of the University of Oregon held their once-a-term union meeting on Thursday, February 6. With the possibility of a strike in the air around week 10 of the winter term, the UA is preparing for what could be next. (Miles Cull/Emerald)

Miles Cull

The United Academics of the University of Oregon, a faculty union, began bargaining with the university on Feb. 1, 2024, several months before their contract expired in June.

Throughout the year-long bargaining and negotiating, UA has been pushing for higher salaries as a means to ward off inflation, especially in the Eugene housing market, according to Keaton Miller, associate economics professor and member of UA’s bargaining team.

“If you are trying to buy your first home and start a family it (current salaries) means you can’t afford a down payment and have to eat into (your) savings,” Miller said.

According to UO’s website, UO said that one of the main reasons it has not agreed to larger raises is because of how much money the university is paid by the state to begin with.

The union was set to go on strike just hours before a tentative agreement on salary, the last sticking point at the bargaining table, was reached, according to UA President Mike Urbancic.

“We were very prepared, we had wagons, gear, signs made… the machine was ready to go and we just needed to turn the key and say go,” Miller said. “It was a really tough call to make, but sometimes new information comes along and you have to change things.”

Miller said one of the main reasons UA opted against a strike last minute was to limit “disruption.”

“A strike is a very disruptive thing to the university, and for faculty, your health insurance can be taken away and we don’t want to hurt students because we are ultimately here to serve students,” Miller said.

Miller also said that federal decisions caused the “ground to shift” and had a significant impact on the agreement.

“(While) funding constraints (were) getting tighter and tighter in the Trump era, we noticed that campus needed a little reconciliation. We had a deal on the table and it isn’t what we are hoping for, but it is better than what some other universities got,” Miller said.

According to Miller, the federal government also impacted UA’s decision to halt the strike in terms of “protection” of faculty and students on visas or green cards.

“I think we bear an obligation to our faculty to evaluate all the risks, and in the past months, we have seen undergraduate and graduate students across the country on student visas or green cards getting revoked and deported and arrested,” Miller said. “(This situation) really gave us pause and… it did affect our thinking as a bargaining team and as faculty.”

How long has bargaining gone on for?

According to Miller, some bargaining sessions started out rough over disagreements about union dues and positions.

“The administration started this process with some really aggressive moves that would have made the university harder to operate… and some people (members) said that set the tone for what happened later,” Miller said.

After 20 bargaining sessions, UA requested for state mediation on Dec. 6, 2024. State mediation is conducted by the Oregon Employment Relations Board and is a confidential process of negotiations — members of the public or the press are not permitted to attend the sessions.

In early December 2024, UO was offering 4% across-the-board raises for January 2025 and 3% merit-pool increases in January of 2026.

UA launched a new website, strengthenuo.org, to consolidate the union’s efforts. UA also held numerous rallies with hundreds of attendees throughout winter term.

On Feb. 19, UA declared it had reached impasse with UO, meaning that both parties were not able to come to an agreement.

During the “cool-down period” that followed the impasse, 92% of faculty in the union voted “yes” in a strike authorization vote.

In March, salary became the “most significant remaining issue between the university and the union,” and UA declared an intent to strike as soon as March 31, the first Monday of spring term.

But on March 30, UA paused all efforts of a strike after both UA and UO reached a tentative agreement.

UA will now hold a ratification vote regarding the tentative agreement by April 6.

The vote opens on April 2 and will be sent out to UA members via email. UA is also hosting an information session that day.

“We (UA) don’t want members to just be voting, we want members to be able to ask questions and understand the terms of the contract,” Miller said.

The full details of the salary increases and payments members will receive if the ratification vote goes through were published in an email from UA President Mike Urbancic to UA faculty, and are included below. The one-time payment will come in members’ next paychecks, according to Miller.

“While negotiations were thorough and required time to address complex issues, we believe the result serves both faculty interests and the university’s financial responsibilities,” UO spokesperson Eric Howald said. “With the agreement in place and spring term proceeding as scheduled, we can collectively refocus on our shared commitment to educational excellence and student success at the University of Oregon.”

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