Inside
Meeting Notices
See
Page 6
Volume 113
Number 9
May 4, 2012
Portland, Oregon
P RIMARY E LECTION
Endorsements of the
N ORTHWEST O REGON L ABOR C OUNCIL
Clackamas County
County Chair: D AVE H UNT
County Commissioner, Position 3: M ARTHA S CHRADER
County Commissioner, Position 4: J AMIE D AMON
Sheriff: C RAIG R OBERTS
Columbia County
Board of Commissioners, Position 1: E ARL F ISHER
Board of Commissioners, Position 3: T ONY H YDE
Metro
Commissioner, Dist. 6: B OB S TACEY
Multnomah County
County Commissioner, Dist. 1: D EBORAH K AFOURY
County Commissioner, Dist. 3: J UDY S HIPRACK
County Commissioner, Dist. 4: D IANE M C K EEL
District Attorney: R OD U NDERHILL
University of Oregon administration
backs off faculty union challenge
United Academics is
certified after Gov.
Kitzhaber weighs in
B Y STEFAN OSTRACH
S PECIAL C ORRESPONDENT
EUGENE — A new faculty union
at the University of Oregon was certi-
fied by the Oregon Employment Rela-
tions Board April 27, shortly after the
university’s administration dropped le-
gal objections it had filed against the
proposed bargaining unit, which in-
cluded tenure-related faculty, non-
tenure-track faculty, adjunct instruc-
tors, and officers of research.
The new union is United Academ-
ics of the University of Oregon, an af-
filiate of the American Federation of
Teachers, AFL-CIO, and the independ-
ent American Association of University
Professors. The union will include
most faculty and research employees at
the university.
It is the largest bargaining unit to
win union certification through the
card-check provisions of Oregon’s pub-
lic sector labor law.
United Academics submitted cards to
the ERB March 13 from a majority of
the faculty designating it as their union.
Lawyers for the university subsequently
filed objections to the proposed bargain-
ing unit that would have gutted the
union. The university would have pre-
ferred two bargaining units, one for
tenured and tenure-related faculty and
another unit of non-tenured faculty.
ERB set hearing dates for early
May, but the university’s administration
and the union reached an agreement
prior to the hearing.
That deal was reached with help
from Gov. John Kitzhaber.
Duke Shepard, labor and human
services policy adviser to the governor,
told the Labor Press that Kitzhaber
“communicated quite a bit” with the
UO administration. Kitzhaber’s posi-
tion was, Shepherd explained, “If a ma-
jority wants a union they should be able
to have it.”
Shepard, a former political director
at the Oregon AFL-CIO, personally
communicated back and forth with
both the union and the university. “We
felt it was in everyone’s best interest to
come to a swift resolution,” he said.
Shepard conveyed Kitzhaber’s view
that it would be “productive to start ne-
gotiating a contract and not have a pro-
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Unions join rally against ‘War on Women’
Ballot Measure 26-125 (Library Levy renewal )
Support
City of Portland
City Commissioner Position 4: S TEVE N OVICK
Washington County
County Commissioner, District 1: D ICK S CHOUTEN
(Authorized and paid for by the Northwest Oregon Labor Council,
3645 SE 32nd Ave., Portland, Oregon )
tracted fight over who is in and out [of
the bargaining unit],” he said. “Our as-
sessment was the case law is on the
side of unionization of workers who
want it.”
The objections were resolved with
an agreement that 49 employees were
exempt from representation as man-
agers and another 161 would be ex-
cluded “at this time because they cur-
rently have supervisory authority.” The
union and administration also agreed on
a process for resolving disputes about
other supervisory or confidential posi-
tions, consistent with state law.
“We now have the official means to
negotiate and collectively bargain for
better working conditions, transparency,
and accountability,” the union said in an
e-mail to faculty members. “Among the
many Research I universities in the
Western U.S., our union will be the
largest integrated bargaining unit — a
significant achievement in an era where
education is continually under threat.”
In an e-mail to faculty, Interim Uni-
versity of Oregon President Robert
Berdahl said the university “acknowl-
edged from the beginning that our fac-
ulty has the right to organize. We did
Women from throughout Oregon took part in the “Unite Against the War on
Women” rally in Salem April 28.
SALEM — Several hundred people,
mostly women, gathered on the steps of
the state Capitol for three hours April
28 as part of a national grassroots
movement called United Against the
War on Women.
Similar rallies were sponsored in 46
states across the country.
The rallies were held as a show of
strength against recent threats to
women’s rights on issues ranging from
reproductive to economic and human
rights. According to the Guttmacher In-
stitute, 944 measures related to repro-
ductive health have been introduced in
45 state legislatures so far this year.
“Understand, you have the power to
return equity, fairness, and balance to
this government,” said Tom Chamber-
lain, president of the Oregon AFL-CIO,
and one of only two men invited to
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