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0 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? e-edition | subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW Thursday night lightning sparks 10 new fires across region ... Bear Creek Greenway to link to Highway 62 ... More thunderstorms expected ... Thursday night lightning sparks 10 new fires across region ... Bear Creek Greenway to link to Highway 62 ... More thunderstorms expected ... LABOR DISPUTE University of Oregon teaching assistants strike Disagreement over medical leave comes at busy end of term Comment By Diane Dietz Eugene Register-Guard MailTribune.com By Diane Dietz Eugene Register-Guard Posted Dec. 3, 2014 at 2:00 AM By Diane Dietz Eugene Register-Guard Posted Dec. 3, 2014 at 2:00 AM » Social News The Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation is beginning a strike today for the first time in the labor union’s 38 years on the University of Oregon campus. About 500 of the teaching fellows — known as “GTFs” — and their supporters kicked off the strike Monday evening in a 1½-hour rally in the dark and rain in front of Johnson Hall, the university’s administration building. The mood was raucous, with a lot of call and response led by a succession of local politicians and state labor leaders. “Are you ready for a fight?” “Damn right!” The 1,500 graduate teachers, who provide about one-third of the instruction to undergraduate students, are walking off the job today in the last two weeks of fall term — just when the quarterly pile-up of papers, exams and final grades comes due. Picket lines will be stationed today at various campus buildings, said Steve McAllister, a biology doctoral student and union bargaining team member. The GTFs went into a last-ditch mediation session with UO officials on Monday with a sense of optimism, McAllister said. The dispute had winnowed down to a single issue — the union’s demand for two weeks of paid medical and parental leave. University bargainers proposed a way out in the form of creating a $150,000 graduate student hardship fund that students could tap for $1,000 or $1,500 in the case of illness or the birth of a child. The rub: The university refused to write the specifics of how the hardship fund would operate, including details about eligibility, into the proposed two-year contract, union leaders said. The fund would be for all graduate students, and not just those with fellowships. “The university is working to keep the fund accessible for all, and placing it completely in the collective bargaining agreement hinders the ability to maintain equity,” UO spokesman Tobin Klinger said in an email. UO interim President Scott Coltrane issued a statement, saying in part that the university has made every effort to find a solution. “I care deeply about each student and employee here,” he said. “I was hopeful every day that this could be avoided. Unfortunately, the bargaining teams met (Monday) and could not reach an agreement.” Coltrane also said the university’s work will continue and assured students that their education remains the top priority. “Final exams will be held and graded, and grades will be entered,” he said. “And we will all look forward toward winter term.” The university did not clarify why it doesn’t support detailing the hardship fund operations in the contract for the GTFs, and then administering the fund for those graduate students without fellowships in an identical manner. The graduate student federation is adamant that the terms belong in a legally enforceable contract, McAllister said. “What we basically have today is they’ve said, ‘Hey, we’ll do this great program for you’ and we’ve said, ‘Great. Do you promise?’ And they’ve said, ‘Well, no. We don’t.’ We can’t take that,” he said. Kurt Willcox, a campus labor leader and a member of the UO Board of Trustees, told the crowd he is angry that the UO didn’t agree to a deal. “All they had to do was sign the agreement,” Willcox told the crowd packed into the plaza in front of Johnson Hall, which spilled out onto East 13th Avenue and also churned the Johnson Hall lawn into muck. Mayor Kitty Piercy, City Councilor Claire Syrett and Lane County Commissioner Pete Sorenson spoke in support of the GTFs. “We believe people should be able to stay home when they are sick and not lose anything for doing so,” Piercy said. Teamsters representative Leonard Stoehr said people don’t generally associate his union with higher learning. But “as far as we’re concerned, you’ve got graduate students handcuffed to their cubicles grading papers for 12, 14, 16 hours without fair wages and fair benefits,” Stoehr said. “It’s a sweatshop like any other sweatshop.” Jim Salt, president of the Lane Community College faculty union, said he resents that the UO looked to LCC teachers to take over the GTFs’ classes in the event of a strike. He said he was a member of the GTF federation in the mid-1980s, when the union was seeking medical benefits and staged a sit-in at Johnson Hall in the president’s office. “We won’t take your jobs. We won’t cross your picket line,” he said to a chorus of “thank-yous” from the crowd. Ron Bramhall of United Academics, the UO faculty union, thanked the GTFs for “setting the stage. We’re going to be bargaining in the spring. We’re going to have the same conversation.” He added: “I will not cross the picket line. I will not do your work. I will be walking with you (today).” Carla McNally, a university leader with the Service Employees International Union, said some of the 1,700 UO classified workers have been asked by the administration to go to GTF-led classes today and take attendance or do other GTF jobs. The classified members may have to do some of those things, she said, “but guess what? We’ll be out here before our shift, after our shift, during our lunch and on our breaks to support the grad students in this fight with the university administration.” By Diane Dietz Eugene Register-Guard MailTribune.com By Diane Dietz Eugene Register-Guard Posted Dec. 3, 2014 at 2:00 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. 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