Bargaining started in February. The union put out a 3-year plan to get UO salaries from 86% of the average of our AAU Public comparators to 100% – a publicly stated goal of UO administrators going back to Pres Richard Lariviere and Provost Jim Bean.
President Scholz’s bargaining team countered with the offer of 3 years of 3% raises – not even enough to make up for recent inflation, much less move us up from the bottom of the AAU, PAC-12, Big-10, etc. Scholz’s bargaining team justified this by arguing they did not have the money – meaning they had other priorities for spending their ~$1 billion budget. The union responded by proposing they just get faculty salaries up to the level of Johnson Hall’s senior academic administrators – who are paying themselves 99% of the AAU average, plus bennies such as Provost Long’s $130K startup and alcohol budget.
The administration responded by refusing to increase their 3-for-3 offer. They did however switch their logic from “we don’t have the money” to “you are already overpaid” – arguing the cost of UO’s benefit package was high enough, and the cost of living in Eugene low enough, that in terms of total compensation faculty are already at 98.3% of the AAU average. I expect the union will disagree with the assumptions behind this number.
Here’s the union’s statement asking faculty to show up to hear their union’s response:
Our Fight for Fair Salaries
Your bargaining team meets with administration again this week on Thursday, September 26th, from 12:30 to 3:30pm. Please note that we will gather in Lillis 112 – right down the hall from the room we typically meet in.
We will present several articles, including Article 26: Salary. We have poured over the data underpinning the administration’s most recent proposal and have developed our counterproposal based on, and in response to their data. We anticipate a robust conversation about compensation during the session. We will also present our counterproposals on review processes for tenure-related and Career faculty.
Come to bargaining for as long as possible. If we are to avoid a future job action (such as a strike), it is imperative that faculty show up and remain engaged in bargaining throughout the coming term.
