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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 22, 1977)
Vol 78. No 130 Eugene, Oregon 97403 Friday. April 22, 1977 Union officials answer GTF questions By BILL LUTZ Ol the Emerald The Graduate Teaching Fellows Federa tion (GTFF) sponsored an open lorum Thursday to answer questions concerning the effects of GTF unionization University GTFs will vote Wednesday and Thursday whether to be represented by the GTFF in collective bargaining or have no represen tation at all Answering questions concerning the ef fects GTF unionization had at the University ol Wisconsin were Bob Gmsburg and David Newby of the Teaching Assistants Associa tion (TAA) at Wisconsin Gmsburg is the president of the TAA which has had a union contract since 1970 Speaking on the benefits TAs have re ceived from a union contract Newby pointed to limitation of class size, standar dization of number of hours for particular TA appointments, a health insurance program (equal to that of Wisconsin State employes) and an organized voice to push for democ ratization of the educational process Newby pointed out that they have not won many of their demands concerning participation in determining course content and educational policy, but that their affilia tion with the American Federation of Teachers enables their union to have an active voice in lobbying and collective bar gaining. We have been successful in raising these issues Having a union with credibility we can push these issues on campus as Bring ‘em back Dm l\l: CLASS CANS PAPER Photo by Lora CuyhendaM 01 Coors we recycle' Tammy Gilbert, fresh man liberal arts major. sorts through stacks of no-deposit Coors cans brought to the BRING depository But there s more to come - the Coors donor reports. Tve got 14 cases of Coors beer cans at home - this is only half of it." Faculty accepts salary cut By CHER I O NEIL Of the Emerald A recent recommendation by Clarence Schminke, director ot summer session, calls for a 10 per cent teacher salary reduc tion to share in the University s budgetary cutbacks In the past, teachers have been paid 22 per cent of their academic salaries for a full year to leach during summer session This summer, they will be paid 20 per cent of their regular full-year salary, a 10 per cent change The faculty generally have reacted very well to the reduction," Schminke said. Faculty of the political science depart ment passed a motion Wednesday to state their acceptance of the 10 per cent salary cut in the spirit of collegiality to a common problem." But they protest the late and seemingly arbitrary manner in which the decision was made Such a late notice would leave teachers with little time to develop sum mer alternatives, the faculty said Ron Trebon, administrative officer and summer session assistant, estimated the savings of the budgetary cutback as $115,000 in the summer school budget, a substantial amount of the necessary cut backs for next year s budget The political science faculty also states in their motion that University administrators who are employed during summer session should not be withheld from the 10 per cent salary cut. They proposed a re-examination of the budget reduction in light of the addi tional money made available from adminis trators sharing in the overall reduction They urged that their proposed adminis trative cut should not be applied to the "un derpaid" staff members contracted bet ween the University and the Oregon State Educational Association. Paul Olum. vice president of academic affairs, said, “The money has to be reduced somewhere, adding that it seems more desirable to reduce the summer school scale than to lose seven or eight full-time academic positions Dean John Baldwin of the college of arts and sciences expressed his sympathy in the task of budgetary cutbacks He said that during the regular school year, teachers' salaries are based on more than compen sation for teaching because they are in volved in research and other departmental activities But the summer session load is restricted exclusively to teaching, he said, and he pointed out the difficulty of calculating the differences in compensation. Olum regarded summer session salaries as merely supplementary pay for faculty well as in the broader community, he said Bill Ratteree, vice president of the GTFF. pointed out that such contract protections as class size, and standard work hours would enable GTFs to offer more time and attention to students. Educational quality and democratiza tion of education are implicit in our de mands for better working conditions " he said. Ratteree said that wages are one of the main concerns of the GTFF. In an earlier interview he pointed out that GTF wages at the University have fallen 40 per cent be hind living expenses. He said other GTFF concerns are health insurance, child care, size of classes and a gnevance procedure that does not end with Pres. Boyd s office, but with an impartial third party. Ratteree said the GTFF has not set the demand priorities of the GTFF These he said will be democratically discussed and voted on by union members after they win the right to collective bargaining They are still investigating the vaned problems GTFs have in each department. The demands they have raised, said Caroline Howe, a GTFF member, are the broad issues that affect all GTFs. A number of questions raised refer red to the alleged effects of unionization at Wisconsin as stated in a letter sent to GTFs from Aaron Novick. dean of the Graduate School. In that letter Novick contended that un ionization caused a 15 to 20 per cent drop in assistantships Gmsburg called this allegation a "red herring;" adding that the first time he had heard this change was when he came to Oregon He went on to say the drop in assistant ships was created by shifts of under graduate enrollment from social sciences to the natural sciences, discontinuation of programs, and cuts in federal aid to educa tion Another issue raised by Novick s letter was the adversary role a union contract would create between GTFs and faculty Ratteree pointed out that faculty and GTFs have many common problems and interests and that the GTFF has never con sidered its organizing effort to be in opposi tion to the faculty We will maintain the kind of personal relationship that has existed between fa culty and GTFs. We just want to protect GTFs from arbitrary decision-making." he said. Newby pointed out that is the existence of an organized and unified voice, repres enting the interests of GTFs. that is at stake in the election GTFs face next Wednesday and Thursday. Cal Harris, president of the GTFF. sum med up the importance of having a collec tive bargaining voice. "It is a mechanism to look at and solve problems It (collective bargaining power) can't solve all the prob lems. but we can attempt to solve as many as possible.” Mac Court hearing set Students concerned about the future of Cultural Forum events in McArthur Court should make their feelings known at a pub lic hearing to be held today from 9 a m to noon in Room 112 of the EMU. Proposed rules concerning fund raising, delegation of authority to the ASUO and scheduling in Mac Court will be reviewed
