OPEU
Continued from Page 1
for dependents and spouses and a $38 salary raise per
month.
The University OPEU has been at the bargaining table with
OUS since December. OUS refuses to comply with the above
mentioned package, claiming its budget is too low to pay for
both the rise in HMO premiums and the total-salary increase.
But last biennium the OPEU was given a six-percent wage
increase during the two-year period. Bart Lewis, the Universi
ty’s OPEU representative at the table, wonders why OUS could
afford the raise last biennium, but it can’t this biennium. This
is especially distressing to him in light of an expected $73 mil
lion Legislative increase to the higher-education budget.
The OUS’ latest offer to OPEU included a four-percent
wage increase during the next two years and full HMO cov
erage, but it failed to include the $38 salary increase that
the rest of the OPEU has now.
This enrages the University OPEU, because not only do
these numbers still fall below the market level, but many of
its workers had been receiving a $60 salary increase per
month as an incentive to take a lower-cost health-plan in
surance. This extra money was roughly equal to about three
percent of some of the workers wages, said Sue Martinez,
an University OPEU member.
“[This cut] is mean-spirited and nasty,” she said.
To make matters worse, the OUS refused to extend the
OPEU’s contract after it expired June 30. According to Lewis,
this means the OPEU is operating without a grievance pro
cedure or fair share, yet it is expected to do business as usual.
“We see this as an attempt to bust our union,” he said,
“because other state agencies got extensions to their con
tracts that [expired the same time ours'did].”
Mark Zunich, employee-relations manager and Lewis’
counterpart at the table, was unavailable for comment.
The OPEU’s next step is a strike-preparation vote on
Tuesday, July 27. If it passes, the union will create a hard
ship fund and form a strike-strategy committee.
“We’re trying to give Higher Ed. the message that it might
come down to that... but of course we don’t want it to ac
tually happen because we’d be out of a salary,” Lewis said.
If it does happen, Lewis predicts the OPEU will strike
just in time for some 17,000 students to come rushing back
to campus in September. The University will have a lot
more to deal with than it’s used to at the beginning of a new
year, considering the Graduate Teaching Fellow Federation
is also willing to strike if it doesn’t reach a contract negotia
tion agreement before the beginning of fall term.
“We all know the office workers are the ones who really
run most of the departments on campus, anyway,” said
Yaju Dharmarajah, GTFF vice president for University re
lations and part of the GTFF negotiation team.
In addition to the GTFF, the University OPEU is supported
by other OPEU members. Mark Gronso, an ODOT worker and
member of the OPEU from Pendleton, has taken it upon him
self to get people across the state fired up about this issue.
Gronso spent the day driving his “Contract Express” flat
bed truck around the state. Arriving on campus at about
3:30 p.m., he was met by an enthusiastic group of about 50
University classified workers. The highlight of the mini ral
ly was when Gronso, dressed up as University Chancellor
Joseph Cox, addressed the group.
“I’m the evil Chancellor Cox, and I think temporary work
ers should take precedence over you people,” he yelled.
“Let’s have disposable chancellors,” Dorothy Attneave, a
University bookkeeper, yelled back.
The University is telling us that “they think we are all
disposable,” she said. “They are taking away our job secu
rity. The people who are making the decisions though, are
so well off, they don’t know the real issue.”
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Moon
Continued from Page 1
department on campus said he
was home from his sophomore
year at the University that sum
mer, and he remembers it well.
“It was an amazing thing,” he
said. “In the realm of the unbe
lievable at the time. And it was re
f ally special, I think, because we
were the first ones to do it.”
Professor of chemistry Geri
Richmond can likewise recall
watching the historic moment on
television. She was attending a
cheerleading camp “somewhere
in rural Missouri” at the time as a
high school student.
“All of us girls huddled around
a television set watching it,” she
said. “It had such an impact and
was such an important event be
cause you had a sense of how
phenomenal it was to accomplish
what they did.”
Astronomy professor Robert
Zimmerman was working at
Boeing in the summer of 1969.
He believes the event held a par
ticular significance and “mys
tery” to it as it was the first time
humans left the Earth’s atmos
phere.
“I was very impressed,” he
said. “I recall the feeling around
the world. It was an exciting
time.”
Launched from the Kennedy
Space Center in Florida on July
16, 1969, the eight-day mission
was the first to bring back samples
from another planetary body,
opening new frontiers in science
and exploration.
Commemorations of the 30
year anniversary of Apollo 11
will be held around the country
today by NASA, Boeing and oth
er space agencies and in Wash
ington, D.C.
Anarchy
Continued from Page 1
ing heard.”
City councilor David Kelly was
on hand Friday, listening to con
cerns and offering to communi
cate them to city officials. And
Carla Newbre, newly appointed
to the police commission, an
nounced that she would mediate
between the activists and police
in her new position.
“I offer my service, liaison work
and my voice to this cause,” New
bre said.
In general, the activists were
pleased with the outcome of the
peaceful and productive gather
ing.
“A lot was accomplished here,
and it was a good show of unity,”
said a young man asking to be
called “Sane” as he left the park.
“It’s a starting point.”
Representatives from the dif
ferent groups plan to hold a de
briefing session later this week
and determine the logistics and
agenda for upcoming meetings.
As a continued gesture of good
will, the aforementioned ban
ner that Berg called “a sort of
thank-you note,” will be pre
sented to the mayor and city
council July 26.
005330
Cheap •fc.idkrts.
frlitc people
^jired't advide
GEE: Council on International Educational Exchange
University of Oregon
In the EMU Building
Eugene
877 1/2 East 13th Street
Eugene
(541)344-2263