Contract negotiations continued as the University responded to the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federations’ (GTFF) bargaining proposals on Friday afternoon in the Ben Linder Room.
“Across the board GTFs feel that the university was not respectful of them,” David Craig, GTFF president said. “For the university to say that they don’t deserve to be paid that basic cost of living is disrespectful and undermines the contribution that GTFs make to the function of the university.”
The graduate student union opened the bargaining session nearly three weeks ago, fighting to raise the minimum wage for GTFs who work at least 20 hours a week to reflect a graduate student’s basic cost of living in Eugene — a figure established by the UO financial aid department. Currently, many members, according to the union, fall about $600 short of the $1,620.44 monthly estimate.
“We don’t believe it’s an appropriate benchmark for GTF salaries,” Jeffery Matthews, the lead negotiator for UO administration during the negotiations said.
The university administration was unable to run its numbers prior to the second bargaining session to offer a counter proposal but plan to do so in the next meeting on Jan. 17.
“My take-home pay is barely enough to get by,” Craig, who is in his fourth year in the philosophy department and has attained the highest pay level, said. “I’ve had to take out student loans, not for anything extra or additional but just to get by and survive in Eugene.”
Among the issues discussed was non-discrimination. The university administration brought a counter proposal to the GTFF’s request to expand non-discrimination to include ethnicity, pregnancy status, citizenship status, HIV anti-body status, parental status, pregnancy status, height, weight, social/political affiliation or participation in grievance.
“Specifically we decided to focus this article because parents on campus felt like they wanted some stronger language based on being a parent or deciding on having a kid,” Amber Cooper, the GTFF lead negotiator said.
According to the administration, there is not enough legal history or case-law to enforce those areas.
“It can be a very nerve-wracking thing as a graduate student to tell your supervisor that you’re going to have a baby or have children to begin with,” Cooper said. “There’s this expectation that you should not have children to be competitive and be amazing as an academic and so we felt like opening this article, specifically, to get some stronger language around discrimination that involves being a parent or getting pregnant.”
The University administration and GTFF did agree to standardize kitchen facilities across campus.
The administration also made many different proposals in regards to language that marks the University of Oregon’s break with the Oregon University System set for July, establishing UO as the employer.
The next meeting will be Friday Jan. 17 at 3:30 p.m. The location has yet to be determined.