Last week, classified workers and supporters rallied at PSU’s Urban Plaza downtown to demand a fair contract PSU member leader Rob Fullmer told the crowd that workers are ready to show their power in this campaign. He emphasized how absurd it is to ask the lowest-paid employees to make sacrifices while the university president earns more than $700,000 a year. Pointing to the crowd, Fullmer asked, “Where’s my ‘chop from the top’ sign? It’s always the lowest-paid employees who are expected to take the hit." Check out a video of the action here.
Thank you for continuing to support your bargaining team in person and via Zoom. And thank you to local leadership at PSU and our siblings at AAUP, PSUSWU (Student Workers Union), Jobs with Justice, and state representative Lamar Wise for showing up last Thursday!
Special thanks to Christina White from PSU for joining the bargaining team for lunch on Friday to share her wildly successful Union New Employee Orientation strategy! We took notes to support our Union Rights article proposal and improve best practices at all schools.
At the Table
We presented initial proposals on:
- Article 57 (Uniforms, Protective Clothing and Tools)
- Article 59 (Technological Change/Retraining)
- We continued to work through concepts around inclement weather benefits and no discrimination
Management presented proposals on:
- Article 17 (Discipline and Discharge)
- Offered their positions on existing Letters of Agreement (e.g. Portland Streetcar)
We continue to work through a variety of articles and the deadline for initial proposals is May 14. We expect initial economic proposals to be the last topic covered by the May 14 deadline.
What’s next?
Our next bargaining sessions are on March 30 and 31 at OSU. Please register for the rally and show up in support of your bargaining team!
Purple up on OSU rally day, March 31! If you join to observe on Zoom, use our Higher Education campaign logo as your profile picture (instructions on how to update your photo can be found here) and a bargaining background from our webpage.
Economic Priorities Survey
Your bargaining team needs to hear from you again about your priorities in this contract. We are waiting for management to bring us their economic proposals and your responses to the survey below will help us to better respond. Please submit the economic priority survey ASAP!