At the University of Oregon
UO at $320,000 (and counting) in talks with union
EUGENE — An outside law firm
has billed University of Oregon over
$320,000 to handle first-time contract
bargaining with United Academics of
the University of Oregon, the univer-
sity’s new faculty union. The negotia-
tions have been under way less than
five months. The firm — Harrang Long
Gary Rudnick P.C. — is the same one
that the university hired to stymie the
union’s organizing drive last year, until
Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber inter-
vened to put the kibosh on further use
of public money to fight unionization.
Details of the university’s legal bills
are the fruit of a relentless public
records fight by University of Oregon
economics professor Bill Harbaugh,
who writes the blog UO Matters and
serves as an economic consultant to the
union bargaining team. In a counter-
blog, the university administration dis-
putes Harbaugh’s tally, saying as of late
April that the Harrang firm had only
billed the university $266,245.
By Harbaugh’s reckoning, four-
fifths of the firm’s billings are for hours
worked by Sharon Rudnick, a partner
in the firm, who charges the public uni-
versity $305 an hour. But also at the
trough is retired UO president and law
school dean Dave Frohnmayer. Frohn-
mayer now works for the Harrang firm,
where he charges $275 an hour (a “dis-
count” on his official rate of $550 an
hour) to advise the university in labor
IBEW Local 48’s Joe Esmonde
nominated to TriMet board
Joe Esmonde, a
business representative
for the International
Brotherhood of Elec-
trical Workers Local
48, has been nomi-
nated by Gov. John
Kitzhaber to a seat on
TriMet’s board of di-
JOE
rectors.
ESMONDE
The District 3 seat
representing outer Southwest Portland,
Tigard, King City, and parts of Beaver-
ton has been vacant since January. The
post was held by Steve Clark, former
president of Community Newspapers,
Inc., which publishes the Portland Trib-
une. He left the newspaper in 2012 for
a marketing job at Oregon State Uni-
versity in Corvallis. He remained on the
board until the end of 2012.
The seven-member volunteer board
serves at the pleasure of the governor.
Board members represent, and must
live in, certain geographical districts.
The board sets the direction and policy
of TriMet and manages its budget. The
term of office is four years.
The TriMet board has been without
a labor voice since mid-2012, when
Teamster Lynn Lehrbach was not re-
appointed to a second four-year term.
TriMet has been embroiled in a bit-
ter dispute with Amalgamated Transit
Union that dates back to 2009.
Esmonde’s nomination is subject to
Senate confirmation. The Senate Rules
Committee will hold confirmation
hearings May 29.
negotiations — at the same time that he
collects a $100,500 salary for part-time
work teaching several courses at the
university. And that’s on top of the
more than $250,000 a year that Frohn-
mayer collects in Public Employee Re-
tirement System (PERS) benefits.
Frohnmayer, a former Republican state
representative and state attorney gen-
eral, is the public pension system’s fifth
highest individual recipient.
The university pays the Harrang law
firm to lead bargaining despite the fact
that it has its own in-house attorneys
and human resources administrators.
United Academics of the University
of Oregon — which is affiliated jointly
with American Federation of Teachers
(AFT) and American University of
University Professors — says UO fac-
ulty salaries are at the very bottom of a
peer group of 62 leading research uni-
versities. In bargaining, the union is
seeking annual raises of 3.5 percent.
The administration’s counter-offer is
1.5 percent.
Harbaugh, who “live blogs” the
union bargaining sessions, said the uni-
versity has stonewalled and delayed re-
sponding to his public records requests,
and charged him $300 for copies of the
most recent Harrang invoices, which
were heavily redacted.
“One of the strangest parts of this,”
Harbaugh told the Labor Press, “is that
not only is the university administration
paying the lawyers to do the negotiat-
ing, but because my blog makes the
lawyers look bad, the lawyers are now
paying consultants to try to make the
lawyers look good.”
“Now they’re trying to charge me —
I’m not making this up — $293 just to
see the full names of the consultants
that the university is paying.”
State representative Michael Dem-
brow (D-Portland), who’s also a long-
time leader within AFT, says that in his
experience, for employers to spend
money opposing efforts to unionize is
poison to the relationship, and makes it
that much more difficult to negotiate a
first contract. A bill sponsored by Dem-
brow in the current legislative session
would bar public entities from spend-
ing money opposing unions during the
organizing phase, though not during ne-
gotiations. The bill, HB 3342, passed
the House and is pending in the Oregon
Senate.
If anything, the Legislature appears
poised to give the university even more
autonomy this year: Senate Bill 270
would give University of Oregon (and
Portland State University) their own
boards, independent of the Oregon
State Board of Higher Education.
Oregon University System prevailing
wage bill passes Senate, 27-2
SALEM — The Oregon Senate
passed a bill May 14 that calls for
prevailing wage pay on all construc-
tion work done on property that the
Oregon University System (OUS)
owns, will own, will use or occupy
— regardless of where the funding
comes from to build it.
The vote on HB 2646 was 27-2,
with no debate on the floor. The bill
passed in the House in March, 47-
10.
The legislation was a top priority
for building trades unions this ses-
sion. It comes in response to the con-
struction of several buildings in re-
cent years on public university land,
but done with private funds to avoid
the requirement to pay the prevailing
wage.
HB 2646 passed with an emer-
gency clause, which means it will
become law as soon as it is signed
by the governor.
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NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
MAY 17, 2013