That’s the rumor, now confirmed. Impasse begins the ~30 day cooling-off period before they can strike. From what I can tell the administration’s intransigence on this is driven by a paternalistic belief that they know what’s best for the grad students – less health care – and a refusal to compensate them for that loss with sufficient pay increases. I’m no behavioral economist, but I think UO’s most cited professor had some advice about this scheme, along the lines of losses looming larger than gains.
?GTFF has declared impasse!? While raising tuition and their own salaries, UO admin devalues the grad employees and @seiu503 @seiu085 staff that make UO run. 10 months in, UO is still determined to cut our healthcare and provide minimal wage increase… https://t.co/THM1eLkYo8 pic.twitter.com/opUJ0rHdvn
— GTFF, aka Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation (@GTFF_3544) September 26, 2019
I saw it on the Twitter
https://twitter.com/GTFF_3544/status/1177336150308118529
I don’t see how the administration can win these negotiations. They have no meaningful leverage–they’re not going to outlast the workers, given that students won’t tolerate having their courses cancelled mid-term. The faculty have even more leverage and should strike at the next opportunity. The endgame has to be that compensation goes up in lockstep with inflation (conditional on re-setting the baseline to the appropriate level at the outset).
More in the Emerald at https://www.dailyemerald.com/news/gtff-declares-impasse-in-contract-negotiations/article_123e164e-e0b1-11e9-9a00-47c6a0b45830.html