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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 25, 2000)
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GTFF files complaint regarding labor practice ■The University denied mem citing the Family Educational f By Serena Markstrom Oregon Daily Emerald The Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation has filed unfair labor practice charges against the Uni versity with the Employment Re lations Board, a state agency set up to decide labor issues. The GTFF mailed the com plaint Thursday, citing the Uni versity’s alleged refusal to bargain, its refusal to distribute informa tion and contract violations. During February negotiations the GTFF requested information regarding the number of GTF ad ministrative positions and the sta tus and department appointments of “training grants,” a type of scholarship. The GTFF did not receive this information because of the recent application of the Family Educa tional Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), a 26-year-old law that protects students against a univer sity’s release of personal informa tion. bers access to information, tights and Privacy Act Mark Zunich, who discovered the law, asked for legal advice from Melinda Grier, the Universi ty’s general counsel. In a letter dated April 3, 2000, Grier wrote, “Nothing in the state employment relations law obli gates us to give the union a repre sented employee’s social security number, department or terms and conditions of employment. “The information the Universi ty has provided is made available by contractual agreement with GTFF. As a result, this is not an area where state law conflicts with federal law. Furthermore, a con tractual provision that violates lawisvoid.” The University’s response on Feb. 24 was to implement an in formation release waiver system. This was one day after the Univer sity had brought the FERPA clause to the bargaining table. At the Feb. 23 meeting GTFF members opposed the implemen tation of the waiver system, and they consider the University’s uni lateral adaptation of the system a breech of good faith negotiation. The GTFF also considers the University’s method of gathering the waiver forms to be inadequate because, as of April 17, the GTFF had only received information on 220 of the approximate 1,200 GTFs. GTFF President Paul Prew said that without information on who is working where, it is impossible to adequately represent GTFF members or know how many peo ple are employed in each depart ment. “It is very convenient for them at this point in negotiation [to not release information],” Prew said. Marian Friestad, who repre sented the University during these contract negotiations, said, “We did not go looking for the law ... we had been giving out that infor mation for years.” Bruce Waller, a GTF, said he finds this argument is faulty be cause the information it is request ing is publicly available in the stu dent directory. i Events leading up to the grievance February 23— Graduate Teach ing Fellows Federation union rep resentatives and University offi cials meet and discuss implenting a waiver system to release GTF in formation. February 24—The Univerisity im plements a policy that requires GTFs to sign a waiver before infor mation is released to the GTFF. March 21 —The GTFF files a griev ance against the Unversity (within the University). April 3—TheGTFFrecievesan in complete list of GTFs. April 20—The GTFF sends a com plaint to the Oregon Employment Relations Board. SOU RCE: University Senate Resolution US9900-16 and GTFF On March 21, the GTFF filed a grievance with the University on similar charges. Jan Oliver, associ ate vice president of institutional affairs, was expected to have made a decision on the GTFF grievance Monday. Oliver did not return messages left Monday. “Our case is that no matter how ’ they choose to interpret this law, they agreed to provide us this in formation [in the contract],” ' Waller said. But Friestad said she cannot act against the law and release the in formation. “If the individual doesn’t want the information released to the union, I can’t violate those wishes; that’s what the law says,” she said. Prew said the failure to release information has resulted in the union not being able to contact its members about health insurance. Without the information, Prew said, the union has been unable to send insurance notices or know if GTFs are still covered under CO BRA, a federal law that permits employees and dependents to continue medical and dental cov erage for up to 18 months after ter mination of employment. Friestad called the discovery of the FERPA clause and the subse quent lapse of information disper sal “a glitch in a system that had been working for a very long time.” To Prew and the GTFF, the Uni versity’s refusal to release the in formation because of FERPA is more than a glitch. “I am 100 percent certain some people have lost their opportunity to get on COBRA,” Prew said. If the avenues the GTFF have taken within the University and with the state board do not prompt the University to reverse its deci sion, the GTFF will file a lawsuit against the University. “We have the right to represent our members at the bargaining unit,” Prew said. 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