Oregon Public Employees' Collective Bargaining : How to Strike

Step 1:  Negotiations
150 calendar days of negotiations must take place between AAUP and PSU. 

Step 2:  Mediation
The State Employment Relations Board (ERB) appoints a mediator. 
According to ERB, 77% of contract negotiation cases referred to mediation are settled prior to a strike. Less than 1% of these cases result in strike. Where a strike occurs, mediation continues until a contract is settled.

Step 3:  Impasse
Any time after 15 days of mediation, AAUP or PSU may declare an impasse. The mediator may declare an impasse at any time during the mediation process.

Step 4:  Final Offers
Within seven (7) days of the declaration of impasse, AAUP and PSU submit their final offers with cost summaries.  The mediator makes public the final offers.

Step 5:  30-Day Cooling-off Period
Thirty days must elapse after the mediator has made public the AAUP’s and PSU’s final offers before next steps.

Step 6:  PSU Imposes Final Offer
If no agreement has been reached 30 days after the mediator makes public the final offers, PSU may implement all or part of its final offer.  Then AAUP-represented employees have the right to strike.

Step 7:  Notification of Intent to Strike
AAUP must give 10 days’ notice by certified mail of its intent to strike including a statement of the reasons for the strike.

Step 8:  Strike
AAUP-represented employees may participate in a strike over mandatory subjects of bargaining including wages, benefits, and working conditions.

State law prohibits public employees from engaging in unconventional strike activity, including sit-down, slowdown, rolling, intermittent or on-and-off strikes, and picketing at certain locations like the Chancellor’s home.

February 20, 2008

Solidarity Action

Dear PSU-AAUP Bargaining Unit Members,

As you may know, the PSU Administration has refused to negotiate with PSU-AAUP about faculty workloads. Many faculty members have contacted the PSU-AAUP Bargaining Team with questions about requests they've received for their time and expertise for "extra responsibilities." We know that PSU faculty have mixed feelings about this issue, and the we encourage each faculty member to follow his or her own heart and conscience when making a decision about how to handle questions related to additional job duties. You may want to respond to future requests with one of the following:

"Thank you for your invitation, but in an effort to demonstrate solidarity with AAUP and the work of its contract negotiating team, I have decided not to take on any additional responsibilities or extra involvement until an agreement is reached. This is no reflection on _________, and my decision should in no way be construed as an intention to target these valuable efforts. It was just coincidental that I received your request after I made this decision."

A simpler statement might be:

"I must prioritize my core teaching, service, scholarship, and community outreach job duties. I respectfully decline your request to take on additional job duties until the PSU Administration negotiates a fair workload article with the faculty."

This action demonstrates support for AAUP and can be applied uniformly without targeting any particular campus group or activity. It is also a collective action that makes other faculty and staff on campus aware that we are serious about our commitment to AAUP positions on proposals being negotiated.

If you decide to demonstrate your support for AAUP by endorsing this solidarity action, please consider making exceptions only in cases where your actions would negatively affect students or place an undue burden on classified staff.

If every faculty member declined to participate in one extra job duty, the Administration may finally come to understand that workload is an important issue for PSU faculty.

GRB
--
Gary Brodowicz, Ph.D. FACSM
Professor
School of Community Health
Portland State University
Portland, OR 97207
503.725.5119
brodowiczg@pdx.edu

Support Collective Bargaining for Portland State University Faculty
Invest in Faculty
"Recruit, Respect, Retain"
Stay Informed @ http://www.psuaaup.net/cbupdates07.htm

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Join the Media Action Team!

Professor Gerry Sussman has volunteered to coordinate the PSU-AAUP Media Action Team (MAT). The purpose of the MAT is to cultivate awareness of faculty working conditions and student learning conditions at PSU via the local media. We need to raise the profile of PSU faculty contract negotiations. We need your help. Please consider volunteering for one of the following tasks.

Letter Writers
Do you read the Oregonian everyday? Can you write short letters to the editors about faculty working conditions? We need at least 30 faculty members who can respond to stories about PSU in the Oregonian. Volunteers will receive a media action information packet to assist them write effective letters.

Media Contacts
Do you have an interesting story about how your workload has increased over the years? How you can't afford to work at PSU? How you have had to change the way you teach because of overflowing classrooms?

Are you willing to be interviewed by the Oregonian, OPB, the Vanguard, and the WWeek? Volunteers will receive a media action information packet to help them compose pithy quotes for the local media.

If you or someone you know is willing to volunteer for the Media Action Team, please contact me or Gerry Sussman at sussmang@pdx.edu.

Thanks for your support!

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PSU-AAUP is 1100 full-time faculty members and academic professionals at Portland State who teach and advise more than 26,245 students, conduct and publish cutting-edge research, and engage Portland metropolitan community through fruitful community outreach.

Portland State Facts

Between 1991 and 2007:

• The number of students enrolled at Portland State has increased 70%.
• Student tuition has increased 54%.
• The cost of living in Portland has increased 54%.
• Higher education funding in Oregon has decreased 44%.
• Faculty recruitment has failed in 33% of all searches due to low salaries and high workloads.

As of 2007:

• The Oregon Legislature increased Portland State’s budget 18% for the 2007-09 biennium.
• Portland State student-faculty ratio is 33:1.    This year the Oregon Legislature provided funds to reduce the student-faculty ratio to 25:1 by 2009.
• The proportion of part-time and non-tenure track Portland State faculty members is 67%.  The result is that only 33% of Portland State faculty members have job security and academic freedom.
• More than 300 faculty members have left Portland State since 2003. The top two reasons for leaving are low salaries and high workloads.
• Portland State faculty members earn, on average, 25% less than faculty members at other doctoral institutions.
• The Portland State Library materials budget is less that half the median for a research library in the United States.
• Portland State is the only public university in Oregon with a steadily growing student enrollment.
• Oregon ranks 46th in per student funding for postsecondary education.
• Portland State has suffered unfair disinvestment over time. For example, during the 2005-07 biennium, the Oregon University System only funded 81% of Portland State’s student enrollment.