PORTLAND — Workers at seven public universities in Oregon have voted to authorize a strike if a new contract deal isn’t reached, their union said Wednesday.
The workers’ union, SEIU 503, said 95 percent of its members voted to strike on Sept. 30 if a deal can’t be reached during a negotiating session on Sept. 23 at Portland State University. The vote results were first reported by The Register-Guard.
The union represents 4,500 public university employees who work in maintenance, food preparation, tech support, grounds, custodial services and financial aid assistance at Oregon’s seven publicly funded institutions.
Those are the University of Oregon, Oregon State University, Portland State University, the Oregon Institute of Technology, Southern Oregon University, Western Oregon University and Eastern Oregon University.
A strike would come as classes begin at some of those institutions, including the University of Oregon.
Sticking points in the negotiations include demands for higher cost-of-living increases and additional pay step increases for workers who are “topped out” at the top of their scale.
The union is pushing for a 6.25 percent cost-of-living increase spread over two years, union spokesman Jay Parasco said. The public university bargainers want a 4 percent cost-of-living increase over the same period.
Fighting for pay over bonuses
Workers also are asking for an additional pay step at the top for longtime workers and to eliminate the lowest pay step of each salary range in 2020. The universities are proposing a $750 bonus for top-scale workers, but no new step increases for the highest-paid employees.
The union also is fighting a proposal that would triple the cost of meals for the people who prepare them at the University of Oregon from $1 to $3 per meal.
Workers also want to be paid when universities are closed because of bad weather, while the universities are proposing up to 16 hours of paid time during weather closures — and more at the university president’s discretion.
Oregon Public Universities says negotiators are optimistic an agreement can be reached.
In a statement, Oregon Public Universities said the schools were disappointed in the strike authorization vote despite a 13.5 percent wage increase offer for the next two-year contract.
The schools said the current offer is better than the 2017-2019 contract and represents a total wage increase of almost 25 percent over a four-year period.
