There are some university employees working full-time and on food stamps.
That’s what Johnny Earl said at the University of Oregon board of trustees’ meeting Thursday, where he and others from the Service Employees International Union warned the university they may strike if raises do not increase.
The SEIU represents service employees at UO, including janitors, office specialists and others around the state.
Over the years, cost of living in Oregon has risen and wages for working-class UO employees hasn’t been rising enough to cope, SEIU members said Thursday.
“There are some people at this university that are barely making it,” Earl said.
SEIU has asked for a two percent raise in the next two years. State universities are also proposing that when health insurance goes up for service employees, workers shoulder more of the costs (six percent instead of what it is now, five percent).
That’s not something SEIU can afford when many of their employees are already living paycheck to paycheck, Attneave said.
Earl said the same thing in his public comment to the board of trustees.
“We are an organ,” Earl said. “If one of us gets sick, all of us get sick.”
Earl himself oversees custodial services on campus and works nights. He gave this address to the Board during his sleeping shifts, according to Earl.
The SEIU’s current contract is up June 30. The two sides can agree to extend the current contract, but if an agreement isn’t made, the SEIU could strike by the end of summer.
“Classified staff can be invisible,” Attneave said. “We’re here year-in, year-out making sure UO is the best place we can make it… In the 30 years that I’ve worked here, my salary and my real wages here have declined until now we have hundreds of people falling into the working poor, and more all the time.”
University administration did not immediately respond for comment.