Sage Kiernan-Sherrow | News Editor

After many months of debate, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has reached a temporary two-year agreement with university management, narrowly avoiding a strike that was authorized to occur on Monday, Sept. 30, which would have otherwise clashed with the first day of classes for many of Oregon’s public universities, including Western Oregon University. 

The strike was set to ensue should university management not agree to the demands of their workers, which includes over 4,500 classified workers representing the lowest-paid faction. The terms and conditions of the settlement are detailed in a document published by Di Saunders, a spokesperson for Oregon’s public universities; they include a commitment to keeping all universities’s entry-level wages above the minimum wage of Portland-metro area universities by eliminating steps of the salary schedule that are below that rate, as well as a 3.0% cost of living adjustment (COLA) increase for all classified employees which goes into effect July 1, 2019. 

“This is the highest increase in over a decade,” remarked Western Oregon University Union Representative and Hamersly Library Resource-Sharing Coordinator Lori Bullis. “The cost of living in our region has increased, but we are met with constant tuition raises and pay cuts…we would rather not get to this point because we like what we do and recognize our promise to public service…but everyone deserves to be paid a living wage,” she continues, asserting that many of the classified employees that she works with rely on government aid.

Analogizing the university system’s structure to a three-legged stool, representing the administration, faculty and classified employees, Bullis called the unification of all three elements “essential to students receiving their education,” as the loss of one would cripple the entire foundation, and affirms that this philosophy was central to the negotiations. 

In fact, the quality of education was a primary motivation of the settlement as both sides were eager to reach an agreement before the beginning of classes. A statement released via email on Saturday, Sept. 28 on behalf of President Rex Fuller announced that, “Monday, we will welcome students to campus for the first day of classes of the 2019-20 academic year. I am proud that we will be doing this as a united campus…,” and went on to thank “members of both bargaining teams for their long hours, late nights, and hard work.”

However, despite the President’s message of unification, Western Oregon University’s Chief Steward for the Classified Staff, Jackson Stalley, remained critical, stating that the situation had reached a level of such high severity that, “even people who were previously anti-union said ‘I’m done.’” Stalley called the administration’s use and distribution of money, “disturbing,” and commented that, “WOU has the largest budget it ever has. Where is that money going? I can look back over the course of the last ten years and see a burgeoning of admin positions being paid significantly more than the rest of us…we get paid less compared to other state employees because we work in higher education…and this is public information.” When asked how the university could better utilize the budget, Stalley asserted that he, “would prefer to see a reinvestment of time and money into student services and faculty in order to foster student success.” 

Nevertheless, this is an accomplishment for the SEIU and the settlement will remain in place at least until 2021. For the full Q&A with both Bullis and Stalley, visit wou.edu/westernhowl. 

Contact the author at howlnews@wou.edu