Forgive us for disrupting your summer break, but the bargaining team has some important updates. Below is some information about a couple pressing scheduled events, followed by our usual bargaining blog update.

Firstly, YOU ARE PSUFA and we are hosting urgent All-Member Bargaining Status Update Town Halls to update members on the current state of our contract negotiations, answer your questions, and invite you to JOIN THE FIGHT. The Town Halls will be held on two (2) dates to accommodate people’s busy schedules:

  • September 21st (Thu), 5:00PM to 6:00PM

  • September 26th (Tue), 5:00PM to 6:00PM

Join us in-person in the PSUFA office in FMH B134 (basement level) or on Zoom: RSVP HERE. We will send you a calendar invite and reminder, and the Zoom link is noted on the RSVP form. You are welcome to attend both dates.

Second, we have one final bargaining session this week before entering into formal mediation (more details on this development below).

  • September 1st (Fri), 1:00PM to 5:00PM (on Zoom only; RSVP HERE)

Since you last heard from us, there has been little movement at the bargaining table, but a lot of development behind the scenes. To refresh your memory on where we last left off, be sure to read our July 28th Bargaining Recap. In the intervening time our fight has also captured the attention of local media! Read articles in the PSU Vanguard from August 3rd and August 10th, in Street Roots from August 23rd, and look out for upcoming stories in the Portland Mercury and other outlets.

While we had initially been optimistic that our Bargaining Team and PSU Administration would meet to continue the process during August, there have been no bargaining sessions since July 28th. Scheduling has proven incredibly difficult in the summer. The University is not happy that our schedules (which include long-ago-scheduled time off for our team members to spend with their families after five months of bargaining) don’t work for their team and within their preconception of the flow of this economic reopener.

Administration’s impatience hit an all-time high this week when we were notified without consultation that they had initiated formal mediation with the Employment Relations Board. This process can be initiated by either side after 150-days of bargaining without a contract agreement, but this still came as a surprise to the Bargaining Team as PSU Administration seemed to agree with us that mediation was not yet necessary. Many unions—including others at PSU—bargain long past the 150-day marker, especially in cases such as ours where just establishing ground rules took up over two months of negotiations (let us remind you that we didn’t start exchanging proposals until June). Why is PSU calling for mediation as soon as they are legally allowed to, and without giving PSUFA any indication this was the direction they were moving? We hope that it is motivated by a commitment to continue bargaining in good faith and in a democratic spirit and not an attempt at unilateral implementation of their vision of “fairness” and “equity” upon our unit.

Come to the TOWN HALL to learn what the mediation process entails, but the TL;DR reaction from your team at the bargaining table is this: We are hopeful mediation will help PSU come up with an allocation increase and counterproposal rather than literally nothing at all or moving a little from column A to column B. We understand the concept of “negotiation” as thus: each side makes concessions from their initial positions to reach a consensus that is agreeable to both parties. PSUFA’s Bargaining Team has taken those steps and shown a willingness to negotiate. The University has presented a continued refusal to move towards us, with the justification that: PSUFA’s asks are so radical that they can’t even think about going to President Cudd or the Board of Trustees for more funding. Here is a link to the chart showing proposals thus far; you can see there is nothing radical about our requests for equal pay for equal work. Transformative, deserved, and justified? Yes. Radical? Depends on who you ask.

The fear tactics from Administration have grown so pathetic that they have resorted to threats regarding our Fall term paychecks and the inability of HR to implement retroactive pay. These have come under the guise of feigned concern over how PSUFA membership might be upset at their Bargaining Team for failing to accept the pittance they offered during the July 19th session—the only proposal they have offered in five long months of bargaining before seeking mediation. This makes PSUFA wonder: How can it be that every other institution within the State of Oregon higher education system can manage retroactive payment, but PSU can’t? As one of our team members said quite concisely in a meeting with Administration: “Our members' paychecks are at the forefront of our minds in this process.” Your paychecks are the reason we are fighting so hard, regardless of “the situation at HR”.

WE WILL NOT QUIT NEGOTIATIONS UNTIL A FAIR CONTRACT HAS BEEN AGREED TO!

We need your support and action!

Attend the next bargaining session on Zoom
September 1st (Fri), 1:00PM to 5:00PM

Attend an All-Member Town Hall in-person on campus or Zoom
September 21st (Thu), 5:00PM to 6:00PM & September 26th (Tue), 5:00PM to 6:00PM

In Solidarity,

Your PSUFA Bargaining Team,
Ariana, Lyndsie, Vasiliki, Brittney, Alison, Rob, and David