The Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation released the results for its 2022 elections on May 6. The new leadership slate will focus on gaining input from as many members as possible in preparation for this year’s collective bargaining process, where they will work to create a new contract between the union and the University of Oregon.
Current GTFF President Mel Keller said the union’s new group of leaders will be integral in the bargaining process next year. “I’m really excited about the folks who are coming in, and I think they’re all really passionate and interested in making some real change,” she said.
Kisa Clark won the position of GTFF president in this election. Clark served as the co-lead social science steward before being nominated for GTFF president.
Previously, Clark was part of the GTFF impact bargaining team, where she helped talk with UO administration to discuss changes to working conditions based on new pandemic-related policy.
Looking toward the future, Clark said GTFF is already anticipating its contract bargaining cycle this upcoming year. She said as a union, the bargaining cycle is a time to focus on setting working conditions, wages and benefits.
Clark said the new executive board will be touching base with as many new members as possible for input as they build their new contract.
“For this executive board it will be a lot of touching base with as many members as we can so that we build a contract that has input from as many voices of GEs across campus,” Clark said.
As a graduate student, Clark said GTFF has been one of the best group experiences she’s had. She said she sees this opportunity as a way to give back and share her experience.
Along with new members elected into new positions, GTFF nominated a handful of previous members to maintain their positions.
Cy Abbott became the Vice President of Grievances last year and was nominated again in the 2022 election.
As VP of Grievances, Abbott said his job is to make sure the university is following the previously agreed upon contract and deal with any cases where that isn’t happening. He said unfortunately, those cases pop up frequently.
“A lot of what I do is fighting for protections with the grievance process,” Abbott said. Abbott has seen grievance examples including GEs not receiving pay on their scheduled pay days and not receiving the proper work spaces as agreed upon in their contract.
“We’ve had grievances where we’ve had to basically confront the university and be like ‘why wasn’t this person paid at this time’ and try to win back wages and relief,” he said.
Abbott said helping support other GEs with their everyday struggles attracted him to the role of VP for Grievances.
“The union is this protective net for us to make sure we are actually looking out for each other and to make sure we are actually getting everything we need,” he said.
During the election process, GTFF follows certain pre-established guidelines. According to GTFF’s website, “Any member can nominate someone to any position.” Beginning in April, members were allowed to nominate another member of their choice. Nominees were then required to submit their own statements before voting began.
As a labor union, GTFF has to adhere to certain laws pertaining to how it conducts its elections, Keller said. These include notifying current members before the election and setting a time window for members to submit their nominations.
Now that the 2022 election results are finalized, members in new positions will have a month overlap with the previous member who held the position. “We work with people in our new positions to make sure everything transitions really smoothly,” Keller said.
