Read Our Initial Salary Bargaining Proposal
Your UAOSU Bargaining Team met with the administration team on May 12 via Zoom. The session lasted for about an hour with 38 observers in attendance.
This was the first substantive session in which we presented our salary proposal, which reflects the priorities of our members as expressed in our bargaining survey and listening sessions.
UAOSU members are concerned about the rising cost of living and need regular salary increases in order to keep pace. There is also a strong desire to make salaries more equitable in terms of gender, race, and other social categories and between different types of faculty positions. Our members see merit increases as a way to reward excellence but believe that previous salary increases that have lumped all types of increases together under the title of “merit” do not truly reward merit. Those sentiments are the basis of our initial proposal.
In order to contextualize our proposal we presented salary comparisons between OSU and peer institutions, and you can find that information here. Our faculty salaries are significantly lower than the majority of our peer institutions, a fact which becomes even more stark when taking into account the high cost of living in Oregon. Comparatively low salaries create retention and recruitment problems for the university. Attracting and keeping excellent faculty requires a greater investment in our financial well-being.
Now is the time to invest in faculty, both for the well-being of the university and in recognition of the salary reductions and many hours of extra work performed by dedicated faculty members over the past year. Despite a year of pandemic, OSU’s financial health is strong. Enrollment has held steady and is expected to increase significantly next year. Bond sales and stimulus monies from the federal government have also helped to stabilize the budget.
The administration team was engaged and asked questions throughout the session. We anticipate that they will return with a counterproposal when we meet again on Wednesday, May 26 from 9:30-11 am on Zoom. You can register to observe that session at uaosu.org/may26. Even if you can only drop by for half an hour, your attendance matters: show the administration that faculty support equity adjustments and across the board raises. Most importantly, share what you learn at our bargaining sessions with your colleagues and invite them to join you at future sessions.
In the meantime, the bargaining team is working on some short videos about salary information and university finances, and we welcome your questions. You can reply to this email with a question, and we will include as many as possible in our upcoming video series, to be shared on our website and through UAOSU’s Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram accounts.
We value your support.
In solidarity,
Kathleen Stanley, UAOSU president and bargaining team member