After three months of negotiations, the University of Oregon administration and Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation — the campus union representing graduate teaching fellows — have been unable to come to agreements on the union’s three main issues: increasing the minimum wage, expanding healthcare coverage to include major dental and establishing paid leave — specifically for parents.
Due to the current snow story, the bargaining session set for today, Feb. 17 has been postponed. Both teams are hoping to reschedule the session for a later date this month than to cancel it altogether.
“We would like the University to take our proposals more seriously than they have so far done, and would like to see them directly address, rather than sidestep,” GTFF President David Craig said.
There are over 1,300 GTFs at the University of Oregon who assist in teaching, research or administrative positions. Each GTF receives a monthly salary, a full-time tuition waiver, a mandatory fee subsidy and access to health insurance.
Currently, the average GTF salary does not cover the cost of living expenses as calculated by the University’s financial aid office. The GTFF has proposed that GTF minimum wage level should reflect the University’s cost of living estimate. The UO Administration has proposed 1.5 percent wage increase for the next year, and 2 percent wage increase for the following year.
The GTFF said the increases would still leave GTF salary about $660 dollars short of estimated living costs every month.
According to UO Director of Communications Julie Brown, with salary, tuition, fees and benefits taken into count, the nine month total compensation for a .49 Level I GTF totals at least $39,211 this year.
“Graduate assistants fill valuable roles at the University of Oregon…,” Kimberly Espy, the dean of the graduate school said. “As we move to the next steps in GTFF bargaining, the university is ready to work with the union to draft an agreement that reflects all of our priorities.”
A survey conducted by the GTFF revealed that about 10 percent of GTF respondents are parents. The GTFF has requested that contracts include up to six weeks of paid leave which would also prevent a disruption of health benefits that result from extended leaves of absence.
“I would have been another statistic, another female academic unable to finish her degree because of child bearing,” Jeni Rinner, a GTF representative who testified on behalf of parental leave said. “Support women scholars by establishing parental leave.”
GTFF Media Liaison Gus Skorburg, doesn’t believe that a parent should have to choose between having enough wages to pay basic living expenses and having paid leave to adopt or give birth to a child.
At the last meeting, UO administration proposed to possibly replace the GTF’s health insurance plan with one that is “comparable and cheaper” and would no longer be under GTF oversight through its health trust.
“The trust is a vital component of our mission as a member-run union, and to suggest, as the University’s team did, that GTFs wouldn’t care if it were eliminated, is simply false,” Craig said, also stating that the union was “insulted” and “alarmed” by the proposal.
The GTFF is planning on holding a rally outside of Johnson Hall next Friday, Feb. 14 in support of receiving major dental coverage from the University.