Category: Bargaining 2023-24

The audience of more than 65 GEs and allies walked out of our bargaining session on August 3 in response to a pitiful salary offer from UO. The university’s team had held on to our last counteroffer for 75 days, yet their long-awaited proposal offered merely a 2 percent raise to current GEs making above… Continue reading UO’s 2 percent wage offer made our members walk out 

Though GEs were excited to see that UO had finally brought counterproposals to our July 20 bargaining session, tension in the room ratcheted up each time the university’s team revealed a proposal that wasn’t the one we’d been waiting for: Article 22, GE salaries. When GTFF’s team finally asked where their proposal was, UO reiterated… Continue reading UO, allow us to explain how bargaining works

The July 6 bargaining session got heated when a discussion about international students’ access to summer funding and work opportunities led UO’s team to state outright what has long been implied by their stonewalling: They’re not willing to recognize what it takes for graduate employees to survive year-round in Eugene, and although their initial wage… Continue reading UO’s mask-off moment makes their priorities clear

Negotiations at the June 2 bargaining session hit a wall when UO’s team brought back a counterproposal that would continue to require GEs to pay $61 per term in student fees. When GTFF pointed out that this requires us to pay our wages back to them, UO tried to separate our student and employee roles, claiming that fees don’t claw back wages because they “thought people were here to get an education.”

Today’s bargaining session went from tense to contentious as the GTFF Bargaining Team held firm on our initial salary proposal: a 30 percent increase to the minimum GE salary, and a 16 percent raise for all other GEs in the first year of the new contract. We also presented our brand new Caregiver Article, which… Continue reading UO still refuses to recognize what GEs need

Today’s bargaining session, focusing on support and resources for international GEs, was moving—on the GTFF side. UO’s team appeared mostly unmoved. After international GEs shared powerful testimony about the sacrifices they have made to study at UO, GTFF’s team proposed the addition of a new article, titled Support and Resources for International GEs, to the… Continue reading UO’s team is ‘pretty happy with the contract as-is.’ We’re not.