Over three hundred classified university staff, supporting faculty, students, and community leaders rallied at Portland State University (PSU) on September 17th, supporting the SEIU 503 members who are preparing to step out on strike. After months of negotiations, and years of sub-par wages, university administration has refused to agree to a fair contract, offing cost of living adjustments that don’t keep up with inflation. The economic reality employees are facing has forced classified staff to take their last resort: authorizing a strike.

We don’t want to go on strike, but universities have failed to prioritize student services and the people who provide them. 

The crowd rallied at PSU while strike votes were happening across the state on different university campuses. Workers came from other campuses and around the community to show their support for their coworkers, who are making the tough choice to stick together in the face of management’s disrespect. 

“We have already taken a lot of hits on our pay, including reduction in salary and cost of living adjustments, and now it is time for us to get a fair deal,” says Patty Maxwell, an eleven year employee at PSU.

Other union represented employees on campus, including tenure-track faculty, adjunct faculty, and graduate students were also out supporting university employees.

“As a union that represents underpaid and sometimes disregarded faculty and researchers on campus I have an especially strong feeling of support for the people who end up being some of our lowest paid workers on campus,” said Ariana Jacob, the chair of bargaining for PSUFA, the union for adjunct faculty and a part of the American Federation of Teachers.

The community members who joined the employees included faith leaders and the Portland Jobs With Justice coalition, which brings the community and labor together in common campaigns.

“I’m out here supporting the workers  who are voting for a strike to say the community will be behind you, you are not alone,” says Alyssa Pariah, the co-chair of Jobs With Justice. “It is only with the union movement that we are going to make any real gains in the larger social justice movement.”

The crowd gathered to hear from speakers and march across the downtown campus and to the Vice President of Finance’s office, where the bargaining team and other unions and community members would deliver letters expressing their disappointment with how negotiations have been handled by management.

“Why are we ready to strike? Because we cannot get management to offer us a fair contract,” said Rob Fullmer, the bargaining chair for these negotiations. “We have endured a decade of cost of living increases that are well below the rate of inflation.”

As the marching crowd swelled into the administrative offices, the delegation headed to the fifth floor to deliver their message to the Vice President of Finance, Kevin Reynolds. Unfortunately, despite being in the midst of serious negotiations and a union full of employees preparing to strike, Reynolds had stepped out on vacation. The delegation then headed to the eighth floor to speak with the University’s president, Stephen Pearcy, but they locked the office doors and said he was out of the office.

Eventually, Associate Vice President of Human Resources, Isacc Dickson, met with the crowd to receive the letters.

“These workers are very, very important to the educational mission…this university can’t work without those workers doing a good job, and the students can’t get a good education without that support,” said Marty Hart-Landsberg, a Professor Emeritus at Reed College and a representative of the workers rights board at Portland Jobs With Justice. “These workers deserve to be treated with respect and rewarded accordingly.”

As the delegation left they were greeted by hundreds of employees and supporters who had entered the building, showing management the power that we have when we stick together.

“How we effectively get a contract and put pressure on the administration is by you and your support,” said bargaining team member Bill Harris as he addressed the chanting crowd. “Today, after our strike authorization vote yesterday, we have begun a new chapter.”