With a strike among graduate educators impending, the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation held a “last chance” rally at noon calling for the University of Oregon to make one final offer before the end of the day. Earlier in the day, GTFF’s bargaining team held its last scheduled meeting with UO. 
The rally, consisting of roughly 200 students, took place on Jan. 11 at the Erb Memorial Union Green in the rain. 
“The one demand that we are still hung up about in the bargaining room is wages. We are fighting for a fair wage for all GEs across campus,” chemistry graduate student and GTFF member Alex Rosen said.
Rosen said he’s hopeful that UO will make a last-minute offer, but GTFF remains ready to strike if they do not meet bargaining table demands. “We are hopeful that the strike ends quickly. However, we will stay on strike until UO comes to us with a fair deal that all of our membership can get behind,” he said.
This would be the second strike in GTFF’s history, the first having occurred in 2014 and lasting one week before reaching an agreement with the university.
In the event of a strike, GTFF head of communications Rosa Inocencio Smith said that the union’s bargaining team will be meeting regularly with the university until they reach a tentative agreement. The strike will continue until GTFF’s members can agree on a contract.
“We are fighting for a better university as a whole. [Students] deserve a university that values their instruction enough to pay for it,” Inocencio Smith said. 
GTFF has accused the University of attempting to replace striking GEs with non-GTFF members. The University Senate Academic Council held an emergency meeting on Jan. 8, where it recommended that striking GEs be replaced with new instructors. According to the document, if the striking GE does not return before the end of the course, the replacement instructor will become the course’s permanent instructor for the remainder of the term.
“There have already been departments sending out job notifications for scab roles and asking undergrads to take on some teaching responsibilities,” Rosen said. “And we would like to ask that every person who hears of a scab posting to simply not take it. It’s easy to not do extra work.”
According to GTFF’s website, a “scab” is an individual  “who does the work of another union employee on strike.” GTFF states that a “scab” could lengthen the timeframe of the strike. 
Inocenio Smith said that GEs in teaching positions have been holding presentations this week on details regarding the impending strike. Presentations state that “UO chooses poverty wages instead of excellent education,” and ask students to join rallies, donate to strike funds and avoid attending any classes taught by GE replacements — which GTFF refers to as “scabs.” 
The presentation, developed by GTFF’s organizing committee for all teaching GE’s, further includes a “GE striking guarantee,” stating, “When I return to teaching, I’ll make sure that we recover as much lost time and content as possible. I’ll do everything I can to ensure that your grades feel fair and reasonable to you, given the unusual circumstances,” attempting to remind students where their priorities lie as instructors.
As the strike looms, some students have questions about the effect that strikes will have on their courses.
“I have a GE that teaches one of my classes and I was just wondering, ‘are we gonna have a teacher?’” Kaylie, an undergraduate student, said. “And I kind of asked her and she’s like, ‘I don’t really know.’ It’s a class in Spanish, and I’m struggling with Spanish over here. This could be really bad.”
Kaylie, who did not provide her last name out of privacy concerns, said that her friends have been told by GEs to not go to class or do homework out of solidarity with GTFF. “We don’t want to fail our classes. I don’t know how this is going to affect our grades,” she  said.
Kaylie said that she hopes the GEs do get higher wages, but are worried about how undergraduate students will be impacted by the strike.
“I don’t think it’s very fair that they [GEs] get paid so little when they do so much work,” Kaylie said. “Most of my GEs grade all my papers and they’re there for all my office hours. That’s who we’re expected to go to for questions. So I hope their needs are met. But I don’t know where I stand in this debate.”
Rosen said that the strike will affect students, but that GTFF hopes to have the support of undergraduates. “We are asking for undergraduate solidarity in the sense of not attending classes that are taught by scabs and walking out with us on day one. Hopefully, the strike is as powerful as it can be so that it ends quickly.”
At the end of the rally, the GTFF members split up into several groups. One group proceeded to march clockwise around the EMU Green, chanting, “we work hard, day and night, GE unity is our right,” among other slogans. Other groups simultaneously marched outside Lillis and Willamette Halls, chanting “UO wages are a crime.” An hour later, the GTFF members congregated outside Johnson Hall.
At 12 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 12, GTFF will be holding a teach-in specifically for undergraduate students, explaining what a strike would entail and how it may affect student’s academic experience. The teach-in will take place at the entrance of Lillis.
 

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Eric Becker @ericbecker__

The Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation (GTFF) holds a rally before their planned strike on the grounds of the University of Oregon in Eugene, Ore., on Jan. 11, 2024. (Eric Becker/Emerald)