I miss the early days of incompetent tobacco lawyers and good union raises. Time the union to justify its existence and negotiate for more than pay cuts with the excuse “these are the bare minimums, the admin could always give bigger raises). In 12 years, they haven’t done more than the minimum. So lets just assume we will only get exactly what we negotiate for. That’s why I voted against our last union contract, and will vote against this and leave the union if it means another round of pay cuts.
3
3
Union Supporter
12/01/2024
Dude, you realize that it takes faculty actually stepping up and doing something to get the raises we deserve, right? Not just complaining about the people (your colleagues) that are engaged in the process. Are you going to show up to the next bargaining session? That is literally the least you can do. If you don’t do your part, don’t whine about the people that have to carry your water.
7
4
thedude
12/01/2024
I’ve come whenever I can (I teach, have office hours, and research stuff). I’ve been to 3 this year.
I pay dues. It’s up to those on the bargaining committee to have the courage and patience to wait for the admins to blink. The administration consistently shows a lot of patience in waiting for us to blink in the negotiations which is why they’ve won in every contract since the first one. Don’t fall for it.
6
Observer
12/04/2024
Sounds like you weren’t here before the union. I was at the UO for more than a decade before the union was finally formed. We got NO RAISES at all. Very occasional cost-of-living adjustments that fell far short of the actual increase in cost of living. When I got tenure, I said, “How much more money do I get?” They looked at me with bafflement. But actually I did get a raise with tenure. $400 a year. That was the only actual raise in my entire time at the UO before the union.
Things only started to change when the union was formed. Don’t blame the union for the small size of our raises. Blame those who are really responsible, the bean-counters and football-boosters of the administration.
Believe me, you don’t want to go back to the conditions we had before the union.
4
3
Dane Joe
12/05/2024
Are you sure it was only $400? It would have been more, maybe not as much as 8% for most people. Lariviere gave a raise pre-CBA and got fired for it.
2
1
Observer
12/06/2024
I’m very sure it was not more. Not sure what Lariviere has to do with it? This was in Frohnmayer’s early years.
Turning turning...
11/29/2024
Perhaps related, I was just writing this for a report. Is this level of turnover normal for Universities these days?
Since 2012, we have had 5 Presidents (Gottfredson, Coltrane (interim), Schill, Phillips (interim), Scholtz (current)), 4 Vice Presidents for Research (Espy, Conover, Moseley, Razdan), 6 Provosts (Coltrane, Pratt (interim), Banavar, Phillips, Ford, Long (current)), 4 CAS Deans (Coltrane, Marcus, Blonigen, Poulsen (current)). In 2014 the University became run by a Board of Trustees. In 2013-2014 a faculty union was certified, resulting in a 3-year Collective Bargaining Agreement cycle (in negotiation at this time). [any mistakes?]
3
vhils
12/01/2024
From the very beginning the structure of the union’s bargaining unit, which throws TT faculty with “Career” faculty into the same pot, has always meant that the University will have the upper-hand because the primary use value of a union for TT faculty is pay while its much more about job security for those in the always ironic ‘Career’ category. Not surprisingly then, the University has used its leverage over ‘job security’ to limit pay negotiations. This is, to my knowledge, the first contract negotiation where the Union has really truly prioritized raises, and we’ll just have to see how that goes. Unions typically are built to negotiate pay, benefits, job security and safety. Our union really only has 1/2 those uses at best, and UO admin quickly figured out how to use the one against the other.
I miss the early days of incompetent tobacco lawyers and good union raises. Time the union to justify its existence and negotiate for more than pay cuts with the excuse “these are the bare minimums, the admin could always give bigger raises). In 12 years, they haven’t done more than the minimum. So lets just assume we will only get exactly what we negotiate for. That’s why I voted against our last union contract, and will vote against this and leave the union if it means another round of pay cuts.
Dude, you realize that it takes faculty actually stepping up and doing something to get the raises we deserve, right? Not just complaining about the people (your colleagues) that are engaged in the process. Are you going to show up to the next bargaining session? That is literally the least you can do. If you don’t do your part, don’t whine about the people that have to carry your water.
I’ve come whenever I can (I teach, have office hours, and research stuff). I’ve been to 3 this year.
I pay dues. It’s up to those on the bargaining committee to have the courage and patience to wait for the admins to blink. The administration consistently shows a lot of patience in waiting for us to blink in the negotiations which is why they’ve won in every contract since the first one. Don’t fall for it.
Sounds like you weren’t here before the union. I was at the UO for more than a decade before the union was finally formed. We got NO RAISES at all. Very occasional cost-of-living adjustments that fell far short of the actual increase in cost of living. When I got tenure, I said, “How much more money do I get?” They looked at me with bafflement. But actually I did get a raise with tenure. $400 a year. That was the only actual raise in my entire time at the UO before the union.
Things only started to change when the union was formed. Don’t blame the union for the small size of our raises. Blame those who are really responsible, the bean-counters and football-boosters of the administration.
Believe me, you don’t want to go back to the conditions we had before the union.
Are you sure it was only $400? It would have been more, maybe not as much as 8% for most people. Lariviere gave a raise pre-CBA and got fired for it.
I’m very sure it was not more. Not sure what Lariviere has to do with it? This was in Frohnmayer’s early years.
Perhaps related, I was just writing this for a report. Is this level of turnover normal for Universities these days?
Since 2012, we have had 5 Presidents (Gottfredson, Coltrane (interim), Schill, Phillips (interim), Scholtz (current)), 4 Vice Presidents for Research (Espy, Conover, Moseley, Razdan), 6 Provosts (Coltrane, Pratt (interim), Banavar, Phillips, Ford, Long (current)), 4 CAS Deans (Coltrane, Marcus, Blonigen, Poulsen (current)). In 2014 the University became run by a Board of Trustees. In 2013-2014 a faculty union was certified, resulting in a 3-year Collective Bargaining Agreement cycle (in negotiation at this time). [any mistakes?]
From the very beginning the structure of the union’s bargaining unit, which throws TT faculty with “Career” faculty into the same pot, has always meant that the University will have the upper-hand because the primary use value of a union for TT faculty is pay while its much more about job security for those in the always ironic ‘Career’ category. Not surprisingly then, the University has used its leverage over ‘job security’ to limit pay negotiations. This is, to my knowledge, the first contract negotiation where the Union has really truly prioritized raises, and we’ll just have to see how that goes. Unions typically are built to negotiate pay, benefits, job security and safety. Our union really only has 1/2 those uses at best, and UO admin quickly figured out how to use the one against the other.