The Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation (GTFF), representing more than 1,300 employees at the University of Oregon, has reached a contract agreement providing reductions in student fees, pay raises and strong contract language on grievance procedures and work assignments.

The agreement, negotiated during a state-imposed hiring freeze, was reached Aug. 5, one day after GTFF showed its muscle by holding a highly successful "Empty Campus Day."  A state mediator also assisted in the negotiations.

The tentative agreement runs retroactively from April 1, 2004, to March 31, 2006. Under the terms, GTFs will receive a $45 reduction in fees each term, or $135 per year.  They will also receive a 2 percent pay increase during the 2005-06 academic year, assuming the governor lifts a wage freeze on state employees.  If the governor does not, GTFs will receive a further reduction of student fees.  

Initially, the university had agreed only to lower the student fees until the wage freeze ended, at which time the higher fees would be reinstated.  "I know of no other situation where an employee would be given a raise but told that she was going to have to give it back at a pre-determined date," said GTFF negotiator Jey Strangfeld. 

A fundamental sticking point in the negotiations involved bargaining unit protections. The university has been hiring graduate students outside of the unit to do unit work and has even been hiring undergraduates to do teaching and grading.  This has resulted in numerous grievances. The new contract clarifies GTF work as research, teaching, grading, administrative work or laboratory assistance, notes David Cecil, GTFF organizer. 

Cecil attributes the final settlement to the growing strength of the union.  "Over the period of the last two years, the members of the GTFF have stepped up their activism and militancy," he says.  On Empty Campus Day, one-third of teaching fellows moved classes off campus and supportive faculty and undergraduates generally observed the day by doing the same and staying away from the university, reports Cecil. The university settled the next day.

The event demonstrated that members "were willing to rearrange their schedules and complicate their lives" to improve their working conditions, says Cecil.  The message got through to administrators.  Cecil expects that members will ratify the contract this fall, after the new term begins Sept. 27.  [Brian Dolber]