Oregonian
December 9th, 2014
Representatives of the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation and the University of Oregon will reconvene with a mediator this morning after meeting in a marathon negotiation session that began Monday afternoon lasted until 2 a.m. today.
The teaching assistants went on strike Dec. 2 after contract talks stalled over medical and maternity leave benefits. It is the first GTFF strike in the 38 years the union has been on campus.
The 1,500 teaching assistants represented by the union play a large role in conducting and grading final exams, which began this week. But the university promises to close out the term by extending the grading deadline to Dec. 19, giving exams with short answers rather than essays, assigning extra duties and pay to faculty members, and proctoring exams with volunteers and paid non-union graduate students and undergrads.
Some students will also be given the option of taking the grade they had earned by Dec. 1, the day before the strike started, and skipping the final.