The Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation at the University of Oregon is partway through its 2023 bargaining cycle with the university. It held its fourth and most recent session on May 5.
According to a post on its Instagram page, the GTFF said the university was happy with their existing contract, bringing few new proposals.
This bargaining season, the GTFF is bargaining on the platform of DIGNITY by structuring their proposals on what they believe GEs should have access to for their teaching and living. This means economic stability, health and well-being, respect for international GEs, professional working conditions, resources for underserved groups and bridging the power gap.
Emalydia Flenory, co-lead negotiator for the GTFF and GE in the English department, said she hoped that the UO would come with more proposals. For Moeko Yamazaki, a GE in the history department who specializes in labor history in the U.S., said she has been at the UO for six years and continues to struggle with the same issues.
“Financials are always a big challenge to be an international GE here. My rent just went up by $120 this year but then my wage doesn’t increase that much,” Yamazaki said.
For international GEs, GTFF is bargaining for the UO to make housing units available to all incoming GEs and will be given notice of the housing arrangements within 30 days of the GE signing their offer letter.
When she started as a GE, Yamazaki said she received minimal training.
“There were one or two-hour sessions in which there were three or four older GEs that talked about their experiences as an international student,” Yamazaki said
In the proposal, the GTFF is bargaining for first-year international GEs to have an additional six hours of paid training in addition to the four hours of required training.
This training would teach the different computer systems used in the U.S., introduction in course management software, engagement program workshops and U.S. workplace communication and cultural adaptation strategies according to the proposal.
“American college is very different and what students expect is very different,” Yamazaki said.
In her country, grading is much harsher, Yamazaki said, and more training on the expectations of grading at the UO would be helpful to her teaching style.
The GTFF said it is working to ensure all GEs have secure access to housing and higher wages.
“They, shocked but not surprised, have come with very little changes,” Flenory said. “Which is just disappointing because there is a lot to address and a lot to improve on in terms of our working conditions across the university.”
The priority for Flenory is receiving a better salary that meets the area’s living conditions.
“The biggest thing would just be the salary because they’ve only proposed a 4% raise increase, and I feel like their initial proposal was a place where they could have signaled in a big way that they recognized our current economic situation with inflation and the housing costs increasing just in the city of Eugene,” Flenory said.
An important part of bargaining is building a community where everyone can support each other, Rosa Inocencio Smith, VP of member communications, said.
Smith updates the website with information from bargaining sessions so that community members and students can be up to date about what is going on and help support GTFF.
“We have created this page to be a one-stop shop for bargaining information,” Smith said.
Smith said that standing in solidarity with other unions on campus like the UO Student Worker Union has been important in rallying the community together.
“The most important parts of our work don’t stop at bargaining. We need the community networks and these networks of support and friendship,” Smith said.
