Published: October 8, 2021

We’ve just wrapped up our second bargaining session. While this session was productive in that we were able to get many of our proposals on the table, we were disappointed to see management propose several takeaways. The takeaways they proposed would erode our rights as union members, and take away our ability to raise concerns about our jobs.

Despite management’s disappointing proposals, we continue to lift up members’ priorities in the proposals we submit.

Management proposed takeaways in key areas:

  • Members’ ability to file grievances to address discrimination.
  • Limit our ability to organize collectively and inform the public about our working conditions.
  • Disciplinary action remains in employees file for a minimum of three years, with no sunset, and management would have 45 days to allow us access to our employee file (they currently have 5 days to show us).
  • Limit our ability to involve union staff in discussions about our working conditions and contract protections.

Proposals we made this session:

  • Automatic vacation payout if you reach your vacation cap.
  • Management required to define “operational need” if they use it to deny an employee request.
  • More flexibility in how employees can use bereavement leave.
  • A limit to the amount of mandatory overtime a person could be forced to work (this wouldn’t affect voluntary overtime).
  • Increasing the comp/exchange time cap from 120 hours to 250 hours.
  • Education fund that employees can use to increase their skills and knowledge and advance in their careers (not required trainings).

We know how essential our work was to Oregon’s universities during the pandemic. They know it too. Now it’s time for them to give Higher Education workers the respect, the protection, and the compensation we deserve.

Here’s how you can get involved:

In Unity,
Higher Education Bargaining Team
SEIU 503