{"id":22961,"date":"2019-09-29T15:12:03","date_gmt":"2019-09-29T15:12:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.englishforums.com\/news\/?p=22961"},"modified":"2019-09-29T15:12:03","modified_gmt":"2019-09-29T15:12:03","slug":"union-workers-strike-averted-settlement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/union-workers-strike-averted-settlement\/","title":{"rendered":"Union workers strike averted; Oregon officials settle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>The scheduled walkout off around 5000 union workers from different public universities in Oregon will not push through after the bargaining team and university officials came out with a tentative agreement for the workers.<\/em><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Voice of the union workers<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">This is not the typical union workers that is mostly composed of contractual jobs in the institution as the involvement of classified staffs made this protest much more interesting. Classified staffs include everyone essential in the success of the universities, from food services, librarians, healthcare workers, legal and academic counseling, engineers, scientists, building maintenance, registration facilitators, scholarship grant aids, IT, and tech supports.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">What happens if the union strikes at Oregon&#39;s 7 public universities? Here&#39;s what both sides say to expect:<br \/>&#8211; Longer wait times for class transfers<br \/>&#8211; Fewer staff to assist with financial aid<br \/>&#8211; Reduced hours at dining halls<br \/>Both sides will meet for the final time today <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/LiveOnK2?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#LiveOnK2<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Q7wwsB9mp5\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/Q7wwsB9mp5<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Dan McCarthy (@DanMcKATU) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DanMcKATU\/status\/1176494746597912577?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">September 24, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">This <a href=\"https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/155187\/oregon-university-system-seiu-union-labor-strike\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">campus-wide organized protest<\/a> will make a huge impact on the universities\u2019 operation, especially that classes will begin to resume by October. State university workers are airing their concern on the lack of salary compensation. Majority of these workers are only earning $25,000 to $40,000 annually, while school administrators are enjoying six-figure salaries accompanied by numerous benefits and incentives.<\/span><br \/>\n<span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">According to Alejandro Segurra, an IT worker at Portland State University:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0I\u2019m willing to go on strike because I don\u2019t think it\u2019s fair that people get paid with wages that won\u2019t make them survive<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Theresa Stapleburg, a worker at Portland State library said:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0I want to join the strike because, for 24 years of service, I think I do deserve a reasonable raise- a wage considered to be livable.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">A tentative agreement to calm the storm<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The bargaining team of the Service Employee International Union (SEIU) has come to amends with university presidents with a tentative agreement. The agreement will be voted to ratify by the union workers and with start implementation in November.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">I am incredibly grateful to the members of the bargaining team for their countless hours of work just to come up with the agreement<\/span><br \/>\n<span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0-Mark Schmelz, University of Oregon Chief Human Resource Officer<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The initial information on the resolution was as follows:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">On Saturday morning, the bargaining team from the seven Oregon public universities and the SEIU reached a tentative agreement on a two-year labor contract. The new contract covers about 4,500 classified staff members who are part of the SEIU. They acknowledge the important roles that classified staffs play on most university academic and administrative departments.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Summary of agreement with the union workers<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">3% cost of living adjustment for all classified employees effective July 1, 2019, with an additional 2.1% for the next year if applicable.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">A 2.5% premium for employees working for the university for at least 5 years.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">A commitment to maintain above minimum wage for all entry-level wages on all universities.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">A 48 hour paid overtime agreement.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Moved 15 job classifications to higher salary grades.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">4.75% wage increase yearly.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Meal cost adjusted for dining services at the University of Oregon<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">All other benefits from the 2017-2019 contracts will remain for the next contract.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n<span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Union workers from the SEIU will vote to ratify the contract settlement this October, with expected implementation starting November this year. Good thing that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.englishforums.com\/news\/cambridge-protest-budgets-%d0%b5ducation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">university officials made quick amends<\/a> before things got worse as classes are about to start by October.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The scheduled walkout off around 5000 union workers from different public universities in Oregon will not push through after the bargaining team and university officials came out with a tentative agreement for the workers. Voice of the union workers This is not the typical union workers that is mostly composed of contractual jobs in the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":22963,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,26],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22961"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}