Your bargaining team is excited to announce that after sixteen months of bargaining, we have come to a Tentative Agreement (TA) on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with OSU’s administration. Based on responses to our bargaining survey, participation in bargaining forums, and hundreds and hundreds of conversations with academic faculty across OSU, we entered these negotiations committed to advancing stability, equity, and respect for faculty. The administration repeatedly stated they had “no interest in expanding [their] obligations” to faculty and consistently failed to include you – the faculty who do the teaching, research, and outreach and extension work that is the core of OSU’s mission – in their commitment to “prosperity widely shared.”
Thanks to those of you who showed up – who joined your union, attended bargaining sessions and other union events, and encouraged your colleagues to show up as well – we were able to reach an agreement that we are proud to recommend for ratification. While we did not win everything we wanted or everything faculty deserve, the agreement advances faculty interests in what are very uncertain times, including real gains on compensation and workload, which you told us were your two key priorities.
Stay tuned for an email with links to the new CBA and a helpful spreadsheet summarizing changes. For now, here are some highlights:
- A compensation and benefits package that advances equity and excellence, including:
- A $3000 increase to base pay for AY24-25. In lieu retroactive pay, bargaining unit members will get a one-time payment of $2,500, pro-rated to FTE, upon ratification;
- Merit raises with a minimum of 2% and maximum of 4.5% for AY25-26, AY26-27, AY 27-28, and AY28-29;
- Increases of 7%-11% to minimum salaries for all categories of academic faculty;
- A doubling of Sea Pay and the ability of PIs to pay more;
- A doubling of the staff fee privilege (tuition reduction benefit) – bargaining unit members will now have a second tuition reduction for undergraduate credits at OSU;
- Protection of our 120 hours of paid family leave in addition to improvements to state law;
- Increased stability for faculty, including:
- Continuous appointments for all academic faculty after promotion, which will eliminate the need for annual contracts – this means that non-tenure-track faculty can only be non-renewed for cause or if the position is eliminated entirely through the process spelled out in the Termination Not For Cause article;
- Continuation of our annual bridge funding pool equivalent to 1% of all recovered overhead to support faculty who face a gap in funding.
- New tools for addressing workload problems, including:
- New elements that must be included in college or unit teaching workload policies.
- A requirement that teaching workload guidelines be reviewed and potentially revised, with faculty input, at least every four years.
- A task force that will develop mechanisms to recognize and address the excessive formal and informal service load carried by faculty of color, women faculty, and faculty from other underrepresented communities, and a requirement that colleges and Cascades implement mechanisms to recognize and address exceptional service.
Your bargaining team and Executive Council recommend that UAOSU members ratify this tentative agreement. Members, keep your eye out for an email early next week with more information about the ratification process.
This TA will not become our first contract until UAOSU members vote to approve it through the ratification process. If you haven’t already, become a member of UAOSU here.
Come to our town hall next Wednesday, April 23, noon-1pm in the Valley Library Willamette Classroom and on Zoom to find out more about the TA and get your questions answered. Register here: uaosu.org/townhall. You are also invited to join members of the Bargaining Team and Contract Action Team at Common Fields for Odd Friday (our bi-weekly, drop in happy hour), this Friday, April 18 at 4pm.
In solidarity,
Your UAOSU Bargaining Team
Marisa Chapell, Lead Negotiator
Lori Cramer
Louisa Hooven
Filix Maisch
Kelly McElroy
Bill Thomas
Dan Andersen
Megan Dickison