By Diane Dietz
The Register-Guard
Published: 12:00 a.m., Sept. 19
When a tentative deal arrived between United Academics and University of Oregon bargainers on Wednesday afternoon, the sound of clapping filled the air in a room at the Knight Library.
UO faculty came away with approximately 6 percent annual raises for the next two school years as part of the first contract forged by the fledgling union.
The university administration, meanwhile, retained the right to single-year contracts with untenured faculty — with no expectation of renewal.
And the work was done.
“There was applause both from the faculty in the room and the administration’s team,” said philosophy professor Scott Pratt, a United Academics bargainer. “On the whole, it was not the sort of contract that people walk away from kicking the dirt and saying, ‘We should have gotten more on all of this stuff.’ Both sides felt we really accomplished something.”
UO President Michael Gottfredson released a prepared statement that hailed the tentative deal as a “fiscally responsible agreement that rewards excellence and invests in our faculty.”
United Academics has planned an Oct. 8 ratification vote. The 1,800-member union was certified 17 months ago; bargaining started 10 months ago. If the union membership approves the proposal in October, the inaugural contract will be in place through June 30, 2015.
A few faculty members have grumbled through the bargaining that the raises would not be enough to cover union dues, but Pratt said the bargaining team did better than that.
The proposed raises still leave UO faculty salaries behind those at similar universities, he said.
“We’ll begin to catch up,” Pratt said. “And faculty will begin to know they’ll be rewarded for outstanding performance — unlike the history of the last decade, where raises were occasional and all over the place and the structure was not clear. This process may not have gotten us all we wanted in the first go, but it set the stage for getting regular raises that address our real needs.”
The union did not achieve movement on contract renewal for nontenured faculty, but it did get some concessions.
Under the contract, the university would be required to give reasons in writing for why it chose to not renew an instructor’s contract, Pratt said. The university also would be required to notify instructors by May 1 whether their contract would be renewed the following fall — or the university would pay salary for every day it failed to give timely notice, Pratt said.
“We really made a difference in how their jobs are looked at and what sorts of expectations they can have about continuation of contracts, and so on,” he said.
Additionally, university bargainers agreed that, should Gov. John Kitzhaber and the Legislature stop government employers from paying 6 percent of salary toward the Public Employees Retirement System, as they do now, the university would increase faculty salaries by 6 percent to make up for the loss, although there are conditions that could reduce the payments.
The bargainers said they worked hard at the end of the summer to reach agreement before students return and classes begin on Sept. 30.
“Everybody is very happy that we’ve gotten to this point,” said Tim Gleason, dean of the School of Journalism and Communications and an administration bargaining team member.
University administrators still have their hands full.
A new university governing board, which has the power to fire the president, is expected to be seated in the next several months.
Also, the Service Employees Union Local 503 has authorized a strike of its members, which include 1,500 janitors, secretaries, computer experts and others on the UO campus. Some SEIU members protested Wednesday in Gottfredson’s outer office.
The United Academics union made a concession on the last issue that the bargainers tackled. The disagreement was about what management would call itself in the collective bargaining agreement.
Administration bargainers wanted to be referred to in the contract as “The University.” The faculty instead wanted to call the opposing side the “University Administration.” Union activists created buttons that said, “Sorry Mike: The Students and the Faculty are the University of Oregon.”
In the end, the union gave in to the administration bargainers. Management would be called “The University” in the contract. But both sides agreed to specific language in the preamble that said the university is composed of “faculty, students and staff and not just the administration,” Pratt said.
Tentative UO faculty contract’s details
Here are some provisions in the tentative contract:
Raises: Average increase of 5 percent to 7 percent for 2013-14 school year and 5 percent to 6.5 percent in 2014-15
Lump sum payment: $350
Promotion boosts: 8 percent minimum increase in salary
Sabbaticals: 100 percent of salary during the first quarter of sabbatical, up from 85 percent previously
PERS: University would increase faculty salaries by 6 percent, should the Legislature drop the current requirement that government employers “pick up” 6 percent of faculty salaries toward the Public Employees Retirement System, with some conditions