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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (April 18, 2014)
Professors get contract after PSU drops takeaway demands Averting a strike, AAUP improves salaries and job security By DON McINTOSH Associate Editor American Association of University Professors (AAUP) reached tentative agreement on a new contract with Port- land State University (PSU) April 6 — three days after the union announced that a strike would begin April 16. The deal was made possible when PSU’s administration dropped demands for concessions, and agreed to modest improvements in pay and job security. AAUP represents 950 full-time fac- ulty at PSU. They were scheduled to vote on the agreement April 15-16 (after this issue went to press), with AAUP leaders predicting approval. The agreement addresses union members’ top concern — lack of job se- curity. At PSU, hundreds of “fixed- term” faculty have never felt like per- manent hires, because they serve under one-year employment contracts, which sometimes aren’t renewed until just be- fore a new academic year. The new agreement commits PSU to offer em- ployment contracts of two or three years duration to all but the 20 percent least senior fixed-term faculty, once they’ve taught at least four years. AAUP had proposed that all fixed-term faculty get multi-year contracts after four years — something University of Oregon guar- anteed in its first-ever faculty union con- tract last year — but in the end settled for 80 percent in order to get a deal. The new PSU contract also provides a variety of salary increases: a 1.5 per- cent across-the-board raise retroactive to Jan. 1, 2014 that’s intended to bring members closer to salaries at compara- ble institutions; two 2.5 percent cost-of- living raises on Jan. 1, 2014, and Jan. 1, 2015; and a new salary floor of $40,000 for all full-time faculty and academic professionals. PSU also agreed to form a labor-management-student task force to look at improving academic quality at the school. The agreement contains no conces- sions by AAUP. PSU dropped a pro- posal to eliminate AAUP’s say over fac- ulty evaluation and promotion policies, as well as a proposal to give manage- ment broad discretion to change any- thing not specifically spelled out in the contract. “We stopped 100 percent of the bad and got 90 percent of what we were looking for,” said AAUP spokesperson Jose Padin, a professor of sociology. “We’re still not being rewarded com- mensurate to our service relative to our peers in comparator institutions, but in terms of stability there are big im- provements.” If ratified, the agreement will be retroactive to Aug. 31, 2013, and will run through Nov. 30, 2015. The contract settlement comes after a long season of frustration: The previ- ous contract expired Aug. 31, 2013, and on Feb. 24, 2014, AAUP authorized a strike by a margin of 94 percent, with about 796 members casting a ballot. PSU’s administration could have set- tled months ago, but instead adopted a bellicose posture. It demanded conces- sions, and deployed a management- side labor attorney — Brian Caufield — who allegedly cursed and screamed at members of the AAUP bargaining team. Caufield was not part of the 20- hour-long mediation session that pro- duced the tentative agreement. For those final talks, PSU President Wim Wiewel consulted by phone, having canceled a planned trip to Turkey. Padin attributes the administration’s turnaround to a big increase in public pressure — and a realization that AAUP was serious about going on strike for the first time ever. “It was no longer inside ball,” Padin said. “There were a lot of eyes on the president.” Sister higher-ed union American Federation of Teachers-Oregon passed a resolution calling on members not to teach struck classes. Oregon Education Association scheduled a joint press conference with AAUP for April 7 out- side Wiewel’s office. PSU had announced it was planning to remain open in the event of a strike, but a letter to the administration signed by the heads of 25 academic depart- ments said it would be “almost impos- sible,” to replace strikers with instruc- tors capable of teaching their courses. “I’m teaching an upper division and graduate-level class in U.S. economic history,” said AAUP President Mary King. “Try putting that on Craigslist.” Up to 70 percent of classes were ex- pected to be cancelled if the strike went forward, idling about 30,000 students. The contract dispute also saw the emergence of a large and active pro- union student group — the PSU Stu- dent Union — with about 800 signed- up supporters led by 30 student activists. About 500 of them turned out for a pro-union rally Feb. 27. Two stu- dents also sat through the entire con- tract negotiation as observers. Padin called the contract settlement a first step in a long campaign in which faculty are in conflict with administra- tors over resources and decision-mak- ing. “The crisis of quality of education as we feel it locally is the product of a scissors effect — state level defunding, and crooked priorities,” Padin said. Those issues were examined in de- tail at an April 3 Workers’ Rights Board hearing that painted a pretty unflatter- ing picture of Portland State. The Board, a project of the union-community coali- tion Portland Jobs with Justice, consists of panels of community leaders who hear testimony about union struggles. State Sen. Chip Shields, a PSU gradu- ate, and State Rep. Jennifer Williamson, whose Oregon House district includes the PSU campus, were among the April 3 panelists. PSU has always been a “scrappy un- derdog” that has done more with less, said AAUP President King, but in recent years it’s lost focus on its mission of quality, affordable university education: Classroom instruction has fallen to just 33 percent of its budget, while adminis- tration, athletics, and real estate devel- opment have grown, along with tuition and class size. Grad student Joyce McNair said she was shocked to learn that her professors make just $5,000 a year more than she earns at her union job making Oreo cookies as a member of the Bakers Union; it made her question her deci- sion to go into debt in hopes of an aca- demic career. At the close of the hearing, Shields read the panel’s recommendations: that instruction should make up 39 percent of the university budget in three years (back to the level it was six years ago), and 50 percent of the budget in eight to 10 years. AAUP leaders said they’ll be cam- paigning for that, and also for a reduc- tion of tuition and student debt, and an increase in state funding. Only three states spend less per student on higher education than Oregon. “I have heard you, and I’m listen- ing,” said PSU president Wim Wiewel April 7, addressing the faculty senate the day after the deal was reached. Wiewel said he had “not fully appreci- ated the extent of frustration and dis- agreement from the faculty about PSU’s direction. Of course I read AAUP’s statements, but my own inter- actions with faculty and staff over these years gave me a more positive impression of the campus mood. Prob- ably this was some combination of your ‘Portland polite’ and my peren- nial optimism.” All are invited to UA #290 seminar on ‘Union Heritage’ April 22 and 24 Plumbers and Fitters Local 290 is hosting a two night seminar on “Union Heritage” April 22 and 24. The free event is open to all union members, families, and nonunion friends and neighbors. “George Santayana, a Spanish citi- zen and philosopher, once said: ‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.’ Unfortunately, that is exactly what workers in Amer- ica are doing — repeating the past,” said Dennis Coplin, Local 290’s direc- tor of political and legislative affairs. “The only way we can hope to com- bat this attack on the American worker is to educate everyone regarding what has happened, who is behind the attack on workers, and why,” Coplin said. The seminar will cover the Davis Bacon Act, the National Labor Rela- tions Act (NLRA), the Taft Hartley Act, and right-to work (which is incor- porated in the Taft Hartley Act). Through the use of charts and graphs, Coplin will illustrate how Davis Bacon and the NLRA helped create a strong middle class in the United States, and how the Taft Hartley PAGE 4 Act was designed to harm unionized workers. He will also talk about cur- rent legislation designed to destroy unions and the working middle class. “I want people to know why unions are being attacked by the top 10 per- cent of the wealthiest people in Amer- ica who feel threatened by an educated workforce who have rights at work,” Coplin said. “That is the reason that I want to in- vite everyone from every trade, craft or union that is out there,” he said. “I also want everyone to reach out and invite nonunion workers to attend this semi- nar, as well.” The seminar will be held at Local 290’s meeting hall, 20210 SW Teton Ave., Tualatin, from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 22, and Thursday, April 24. Pizza will be served. The seminars also will be available via remote broadcast to Local 290’s training centers located in Salem, Med- ford, Springfield, and Redmond, Ore- gon, and Eureka, California. For more information, or to register, call Jodi at 503-612-4922 or email to jhurdle@ua290.org. NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS APRIL 18, 2014
