Union meets OUS
to strike bargain
■ Last week’s discussions
began a bargaining process
between the two groups
By Andrew Adams
Oregon Daily Emerald
Representatives from the public
employees union and the Oregon
University System met last week on
campus for what both sides called
a productive bargaining session.
Both sides are waiting until the
state higher education budget is fi
nalized before they begin to discuss
economic issues. And as the eco
nomic outlook does not appear fa
vorable for OUS, the current atmos
phere of compromise may become
strained if the financial horizon be
comes more bleak.
While both the union and OUS
representatives said the session
was a good starting point, they also
said they couldn’t go into great de
tail of their respective positions.
Cynthia Beckwith, OUS assistant
vice chancellor for human re
sources, said the sessions were “a
very productive and constructive
discussion with the union.”
The Oregon Public Employees
Union serves campus classified
employees, including maintenance
workers, landscapers and food
service workers. The current con
tract between OUS and the union
runs through 2003, but in light of
the current budget situation, the
union moved to reopen certain ar
ticles in the contract.
Beckwith said OUS also opened
three contract articles that deal with
contracting outside of the union,
overtime and layoffs. She said dur
ing the session, both sides offered
their interpretations of the issues and
identified their objectives.
Beckwith said OUS is interested
in how overtime is being assigned.
In contract language dealing with
layoffs, she said OUS would like to
discuss “when and how we pro
vide info to the union.”
James Jacobson, union negotiator
for the University, said the union
also opened the layoff article and
two others that dealt with union
recognition and rights. He said the
two sides exchanged proposed lan
guage changes and said the session
went into detail.
“It was pretty involved and kind
of tedious,” he said.
Bargaining will continue
throughout June and July, but Ja
cobson said he was confident all is
sues will be resolved within 90
days even though “there are obvi
ously some disagreements.”
Jacobson said one issue the
union is hoping to change is the
right to access campus e-mail serv
ices during breaks.
“It’s a very fundamental freedom
of speech issue,” he said.
Mark Zunich, University human
resources employee relations man
ager, said the management’s main
argument is to be able to have the
best business practices.
“The proposals we’ve put across
are to do business as efficiently as
possible,” he said.
While Zunich also said discus
sions went smoothly, he added that
once money is brought into the dis
cussion, it could get a little more
heated.
“The really intense part is when
the financial issues are on the
table,” he said.
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