Roshni Ram

Members and supporters of the union proudly holding up their signs. On Oct. 25, 2024 The University of Oregon Student Workers Union rallied outside the Erb Memorial Union to show that the university is “failing on fundamental principles.” (Roshni Ram/Emerald)

An hour into their meeting on Jan. 27, members of the University of Oregon Student Worker Union voted to proceed with a strike authorization vote if mediation with UO administration’s bargaining team remains unresolved. 

According to UOSW Bargaining Member Izzie Marshall, the support for the authorization vote was “overwhelming.” 

“There were hundreds of student workers who showed up to this meeting to show that we demand a fair contract (and) that we need to escalate and take more direct action to make sure that we are getting that fair contract,” Marshall said.

UOSW has been bargaining for its first contract since May 2024.

A few of UOSW’s sticking points that remain on the bargaining table include pay period, wages and harassment and discrimination policies. 

According to Marshall, the meeting displayed members’ readiness for a vote to go on strike and served as a platform to discuss strike logistics.

“We talked about… what a strike could look like. Most student workers have never been in a union before because we’re college students, so there are just a lot of (questions) about what a picket line (would) look like (and) what are the activities we could do… We had an open public forum at one point in the meeting,” Marshall said.

UOSW Member Amaya Carricaburu said she attended the meeting to grasp an understanding of what a potential strike might look like. 

“I was just curious about what the strike would entail as a Resident Assistant… like the way we’re paid and all that,” Carricaburu said. 

UOSW Member Robin Bailey said he attended to show “solidarity.” 

“Only together can we (UOSW) decide what to do about (unresolved bargaining). We can’t do collective action without the collective,” Bailey said. “We can’t say that we’re the wall-to-wall undergraduate student workers union if we don’t have the student workers here.” 

According to Marshall, the timeline for a potential strike is “truly up in the air.”

In accordance with Oregon state labor laws, unions must go through at least 15 days of mediation before choosing to authorize a vote to strike, and only one day of mediation has happened so far. 

The next mediation session is scheduled for week six of winter term, but the exact date has not been set yet.