labor

On January 11th, 2024 a troupe thick with signs and hoodies filled the EMU green as chants for a living wage emerged from the middle of the circle and radiated to the buildings. This was the final bargaining session for the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation’s (GTFF) rising push to an equitable compensation for their vigorous work. The EMU green was strategically chosen to be in sight of the EMU room upstairs where GTFF’s bargaining team was currently negotiating the final expressions of GTFF’s proposed contract.

On Friday, October 13th, the UO chapter of the GTFF (Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation) held a mock funeral to mourn the death of UO’s Public Promise, followed by a practice picket outside the Knight Library. From @gtff3544 on Instagram: “UO has failed its commitment to the public by refusing to pay education workers fairly, and we’re fighting to change that.”

On Friday, October 13th, members of the Eugene and University of Oregon community gathered in front of the PeaceHealth University District Hospital to protest the proposed closing of the only major medical center proximate to the U of O and downtown Eugene. The nearest hospital for nearly 200,000 residents will now be Riverbend Hospital in Springfield, which is nearly an additional 15 minute journey compared to the current commute.

On October 20th, University of Oregon Student Workers (UOSW) and the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation (GTFF) held a joint rally outside Johnson Hall to demonstrate their collective power and call for solidarity between undergrad and grad student workers. For GTFF, the rally marked the latest stage of their bargaining process with UO for a new contract. Their main demands are across-the-board salary increases to address unprecedented cost-of-living increases in Eugene, better resources and support for international students and caregivers, and better discrimination protections.

The clock has nearly struck midnight, and the fate of student workers within the University of Oregon will soon be decided. Either we will have a union, or we will not. As the deadline to collect signed union cards approaches, the University of Oregon Student Workers has buckled down for the final stretch of the race. During this critical time, we ought to understand the implications of both our victory and defeat within this struggle.

On February 3rd, at around 9pm, a 50-car Norfolk Southern train carrying toxic materials derailed. Tons of vinyl chloride and other harmful chemicals involved in the making of plastics, spilled into the area surrounding the town of East Palestine and the Ohio River. The residents of the town were then evacuated and the EPA and local government began evaluating what kind of cleanup measures needed to be taken. It is an environmental catastrophe of epic proportions, yet all guilty parties have begun the effort to minimize it and deny that such a thing happening was inevitable.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 17th, 2023 UO Student Workers Union uostudentworkers@gmail.com | (503) 819-0288 University of Oregon students gathered this afternoon in front of the Global Scholars’ Hall, where they charge a student was illegally fired for supporting a union organizing effort. UO Student Workers is organizing a union for the nearly 3,000 undergraduate student workers on campus – including tutors, dining hall and recreation center workers, teaching and research assistants.

Photo by Amanita Minute For the first time in 50 years Undergraduate Student Workers at the University of Oregon have initiated the process to organize a union. Using the ASUO Street Faire as a kickoff, University of Oregon Student Workers began a card signing campaign on Week 3 of fall term. To file with the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries the campaign will need fifty percent of UO Student Workers to sign a card designating the union as their legal bargaining entity.

The fundamental truth of all human history is our striving towards ever greater freedom, prosperity, and justice. In the history of our own country, this is embodied by everything from John Brown’s attempted slave uprising in 1859, to the national protests that occurred during the Occupy movement to today, where a nationwide unionization movement is gaining momentum. But why unionize? What is the point? Simply put, to unionize is to push for economic democracy, to assert our voices as working people and to gain control over our lives.

*This is the first of the web exclusive articles written for exclusive publication on The Student Insurgent’s website Introduction Elitist publications are scaremongering1 to the bosses of the world about “Quiet Quitting”, a new term that asserts working for your scheduled hours - and nothing more - is a problem. This article will provide a brief introduction to this concept, then explain why it’s dumb as fuck. The Facts About Quiet Quitting The first known mention of “quiet quitting” was on Twitter2 as a suggestion for a doctoral studies paper on the greatest leadership challenge we face today

In a unanimous vote, workers at the 29th & Willamette Starbucks store officially won a union Wednesday afternoon. There were 17 yes votes, zero no votes, and no contested ballots. The bargaining unit contains 28 people in total for the new union. Workers and supporters gathered at the GTFF office to watch the ballot count over Zoom. The process was very deliberate, with a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) employee opening the return envelope.

On January 6, workers at the Starbucks store on 29th and Willamette in Eugene filed for a union election, the first store to do so in Oregon. They joined Starbucks Workers United which has organized 100 shops across the country. This fast growing movement was sparked by workers in Buffalo, New York; that formed the first ever Starbucks union on December 9th. Workers at three more local Starbucks stores at, 7th &Washington, Oakway Mall, and Franklin & Villard, joined in by filing for union elections at the end of January.

UOSW Ballot Initiative Statement & Updates Over the past few months, UO Student Workers in collaboration with UOYDSA have been disseminating our Student Labor Survey and meeting with student workers in hopes of collecting stories and opinions about the material conditions of workers at the University of Oregon in order to produce a ballot measure that would expand worker power. Well, the results are in, and they don’t look good: poverty wages, harassment from management and customers, insufficient COVID-19 precautions, shitty scheduling, the list goes on.

The last few months there has been an outstanding amount of labor activity from workers going on strike, winning new contracts, to seeking to form new unions. It is hard to keep up, even for a seasoned unionist. It has been invigorating, but there have also been losses. In mid-December, City of Eugene workers a part of AFSCME Local 1724 won a new contract. It includes a 6% cost of living adjustment (COLA) wage increases for the first year of the contract which starts retroactively on July 1, 2021.

Photography by Fern We, the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation, make the following demands of the University of Oregon to maintain the health and safety of workers and students on campus: Increase Remote Instruction Options • Move all courses remote, when applicable, until cases in Lane County decrease to low transmission levels as determined by the CDC (50 cases per 100,000 people); • Expand options for remote classes during Spring term to allow students and instructors who feel unsafe to have remote learning and teaching options; • Eliminate requirement for instruction to be delivered in multiple, synchronous modalities (i.

Insofar as the rights and interests to which the student workers of University Housing are concerned, a coherent set of goals is necessary. Such goals must be of sufficient scope so as to meaningfully impact student workers and be achievable through methods practical to implement. We, as student workers for University Housing, have both a moral and practical imperative to achieve these goals. Thus I submit this manifesto, a comprehensive list of goals and ideals, so as to give us purpose and something to strive for:

On Friday Jan 21st 11:30am The Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation (GTFF) lead a “Health and Safety speakout” with a diverse coalition of campus organizations in solidarity. The original speak out was planned to be in front of the Administration building at Johnson Hall. But organizers claimed they had received “a slap on the wrist” about a protest earlier that week in front of the admin building and acquiesced to a location change in front of the EMU.

In the first couple weeks of November, undergraduate and graduate students across all departments received their weekly advising emails. Those of us who actually read these newsletter updates couldn’t help but notice a curious opportunity announced in fine print: Virtually any job you can imagine is available at the CIA – plus, some you can't even imagine This raised some questions: Who arranged for the CIA to recruit on campus, and why?