Four months before the current contract’s expiration date, the University of Oregon and the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation kicked off the first bargaining session of contract negotiations in Lawrence Hall 166 on Nov. 22.
The GTFF has advocated on behalf of graduated students since 1976. Contracts are renewed every two years.
For the first time, the UO has hired a lawyer to be the lead negotiator of its five-member bargaining team for this specific contract. In the past, a human resource representative has acted as the lead negotiator.
“The University of Oregon is enlisting expertise as it negotiates the complexities of bargaining issues. This is consistent with the process that was taken in the recently successfully completed faculty union negotiations. The university values members of the campus community, including our students who are employed as GTFs and hopes to reach agreement that benefits how we each contribute to the missions of research, teaching and service,” said Kimberly Espy, vice president for research and innovation and dean of the graduate school.
The union presented its bargaining priorities, including an increase in minimum wage, expanding dental coverage and establishing paid leave — specifically for parental purposes — that both faculty and classified employees already have.
“We feel like what we are asking for is really, really modest and just a small fraction of the university’s budget or even surplus,” GTFF President David Craig said.
An estimate gathered by the university found that the basic cost of living for UO graduate student is $1,620.44. Currently, GTF monthly wages fall approximately $600 short for some GTFs.
According to a press release by the GTFF, “this causes many GTFs to take on increasing sums of student loan debt simply to make ends meet.”
“Seeing SEIU fighting so hard right down to the wire to get a contract … has motivated us to work very hard this school year and offer to meet with the university as often as we can to be able to reach a contract early,” GTFF’s staff organizer and lead negotiator, Amber Cooper said.
Cooper takes over for David Cecil, who was the GTFF lead negotiator for the last six contracts. Cooper has previously worked with other graduate unions at the University of Michigan and the University of Illinois-Chicago.
There are over 1,500 GTFs at the University of Oregon who assist in teaching, research or administrative positions. While the union represents all of them, only 75 percent are full members. Each GTF receives a monthly salary, a full-time tuition waiver, a mandatory fee subsidy and access to health insurance.
Information gathered by the university in 2012 showed that GTFs were responsible for 31 percent of total teaching time for undergraduate students. This year, Craig states there has been an increase of about 50-100 GTFs at the university.
“I feel like things have started well and there is respectable communication between the union and the university,” Craig said about the first meeting.
The university will respond to the GTFF’s proposals and submit its own propositions next Friday, Dec. 13 at 2 p.m. in the EMU Ben Linder Room.