The first day of our five-day bargaining intensive went pretty well! (What’s a bargaining intensive? Click here.) It almost felt like a celebration of the work we did this summer in remote subcommittees. We presented what we’ve accomplished during the last eight weeks, including shared agreements and clarifying terms. We’ve almost come to full agreement on two full articles—10 and 16. That said, we anticipate more difficult conversations to start next week, when we begin to tackle economics and job security.
Here are some details. (Don’t forget—you can always access our most recent collective bargaining agreement here if you’d like to nerd out on the specifics.):
Progress on Article 10, Grievances
We worked together with management to further clarify and develop Grievance procedures, establishing clear and demonstrable processes; developing a restorative underpinning to the entire Grievance process; and clarifying an early informal conversational process to proceed any formal Grievance.
Progress on Article 16, Progressive Sanctions
In this article, we worked to change language to provide a path for adjuncts to improve rather than just be disciplined. We would like to standardize these processes across departments, so that if adjuncts have difficulties (as determined by their supervisor), there are very clear steps to follow to reach resolution. We’ve also crafted a new informal restorative process that can occur prior to formal sanctions. The idea is to prioritize clear communication and adjunct support rather than outline a punitive process.
We feel good about our progress on these two articles. Another article we worked on today was Article 3, which deals with Union Privileges and Limitations.
Progress on Article 3: Union Privileges and Limitations
A lot of our work in this article centers around a new state bill, HB 2016, which was put forth and passed with the health and well-being of Oregon’s unions in mind after the 2018 anti-union Janus Supreme Court decision. The university must now follow this law and clarify their role in providing PSUFA access to resources and information.
Article 3 clarifies how we access information crucial to our union’s functioning—such as who our current members are at any particular point and how our dues are being collected and reported. PSU has yet to determine how they will meet the legal requirements of Oregon House Bill 2016, but they’ve acknowledged their need to find a way to accommodate the law.
In addition, onboarding, or a lack thereof, for adjuncts is a perennial complaint among our members, and something administration has continually failed us on. In the discussion of Article 3, administration committed to providing onboarding, orientation, and training for our new members, and standardizing the process across departments, which would be …. amazing.
Lastly, we want our members to be a part of this negotiation process! We had a wonderful group of observers with us for our first day and look forward to seeing more of you over Zoom. Please join us as an observer! Multiple sessions are going on next week, you can sign up for an hour slot here: SIGN UP HERE TO BE A BARGAINING OBSERVER.