Graduate Work Meets Labor Action
This year has been a riotous one in the world of labor organizing — the U.S. has seen strikes in industries from entertainment to automaking, and more.
Education hasn’t been left out of the fight for fair contracts. Following on the heels of faculty strikes in Nevada, California, and Oregon this year, student workers at the University of Oregon here in Eugene are preparing for a potential strike of their own.
The Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation (GTFF) is the union for the graduate student employees (GEs) at the UO. In early November, 97% of their members voted to authorize a strike.
“The number one thing that we want is a fair contract,” said Presence O’Neal, a PhD student and a lead steward for the union. “Simply, a fair contract for the work that we do.”
“The reality is that right now, the overwhelming majority of GEs at UO do not make a living wage,” O’Neal continued. “Many GEs rely on food stamps and other kinds of federal subsidies to pay for their bills and basic necessities.”
Over 30% of the average GE’s income goes straight to their rent. In many cases, it’s up to 60%.
The GTFF is a democratic union, which means its leadership meetings are open to all members and it has internal structures in place to ensure all members have the ability to participate in the decision-making process. One of these structures is the organization of union stewards.
“Every single academic department on campus should have at least one steward who’s in the know on what’s happening in the union,” O’Neal said. “[Each steward] also has special legal powers to represent and support GEs if they ever need to be in a disciplinary meeting with their supervisor.”
O’Neal spent two years as a steward for her PhD program in the college of education, before being nominated to lead steward. She now oversees the stewards for several entire colleges within the university, including the College of Education, the School of Music and Dance, and the College of Design.
As a GE, O’Neal works as a sole instructor –— she is responsible for teaching and grading a section of a class two out of three terms of the year. She explained that her work includes “preparing a syllabus, getting a canvas page set up, preparing twice-weekly lessons to facilitate to students, and then grading all their assignments, and holding office hours.”
“Many GEs have to hold down two and even three jobs,” said Sage Hatch, a PhD student and member of the GTFF. “I maintain two jobs outside of the university. I work two and a half times the amount that I’m supposed to be doing so, and I’m still expected to provide quality research support and quality work to the university outside of that.”
The GTFF’s first ask is for a living wage.
“We want to be paid for the historic rate of inflation since our last contract,” O’Neal said. “We want to be paid what we deserve, because our work is so meaningful and so central to the university.”
The GTFF has two other important asks. One is better support for international GEs, including clear communication and financial support. The next is support for caregiving GEs, grad students who are parents or play a caregiving role for other members of their community. Financial and material support for them includes access to university childcare centers, and access to the hardship fund for unexpected costs.
“Ultimately our platform is about a living wage, supporting caregivers, and supporting international GEs,” said O’Neal.
While it is against the law for faculty to directly discuss their feelings on the strike with the students they supervise, O’Neal explained that this doesn’t mean professors are unable to support the union. “We often rely on faculty to show their support in other ways,” she said, “including markers of visibility like having signs up, wearing buttons, talking about their support for the GTFF more broadly.”
Many GEs, like O’Neal and Hatch, are responsible for teaching undergraduate students. If the GEs go on strike, the classes they teach will no longer have instructors. Both O’Neal and Hatch described being impressed by the undergrads’ support for the GTFF and their impending strike.
Earlier this year, the undergrad workers voted to form a union of their own, and won.
“I feel like this year,” O’Neal said, “the culture amongst undergrads is really informed by the amazing organizing work that undergrads have been doing for their own union.” She has been encouraged by undergrads directly asking her what they can do to help. Undergrads have also been attending the GTFF’s rallies, and showing up when the GTFF demonstrates, among other actions.
“I’ve been really impressed with undergrads,” Hatch said. “To the point where they ask, if we strike, if they can bring pizza. It’s very wholesome.”
The steadily increasing likelihood of a strike is indicative of a boiling point in the tensions between GEs and university’s administration. “My goal is not to vilify any particular administrators, so much as to think about the larger shift in university funding,” O’Neal explained. “We’re technically a public university, but less than 10% of our operating budget comes from state money.” The rest is funded through grants, trusts, and individual donations.
“It’s not a secret that rich people with power donate a lot of money to the university,” O’Neal said, “and the interests that those donors have tend to be where the direction of the university goes because the university has to follow the money.”
“If the administration saw and understood just how valuable GE work was on campus,” continued O’Neal, “they would see that taking a stand and offering us the pay we deserve could be a way to fight against this drift in higher education towards becoming a private-public institution.”
O’Neal and Hatch both noted that it is likely the university administration also wants to improve conditions for GEs –— it is bad for them if GEs don’t want to work for them. The schism occurs in discussions of where the money should be coming from.
GEs at the UO have good health insurance. “[That insurance] is the reason a lot of us are able to maintain our health and do this work year-round,” explained Hatch. “But that cost needs to come from somewhere, and I think the administration thinks it should come out of our monthly take-home.”
This is one of the sticking points in negotiations. The GTFF is asking for a wage increase while maintaining the current health insurance. The University is only offering one or the other.
“I think that they think that they’re doing us a favor, and that we should be grateful,” said Hatch. “That we should take what they have to offer and understand that getting a PhD isn’t supposed to be easy. But I don’t think they realize the hardships that ongoing GEs go through. I don’t think they talk to us very often. […] They think they can just levy a little bit of pressure and in doing so the union will be forced to not take what we’re owed.”
With finality, he added, “They do it because they can.”
The GTFF plans to go on strike when they determine their labor is most valuable, in order to ensure their strike is effective and successful. They are preparing to help their members through the strike, because, according to O’Neal, “the university often shows its sort of deplorable and disappointing pressure tactics in the face of striking.”
In the event of a strike, and even before one happens, students at South can show their support for the GTFF in a number of ways.
“South students can follow our iInstagram account and amplify and uplift our messaging when we have different community asks,” said O’Neal. “If we ever have an action that happens on the weekends or after school hours, we would love to have South students join us on the picket line or join us for our demonstrations. Sharing our stuff on social media and showing up to various actions goes a long way, because it shows the GTFF that the community sees what we’re going through and has our back.”
“Let them know that you’re the future students of this nation,” said Hatch, “and that if the future project you wish to engage in is actively being diminished, you have a problem with that.”
The Axe 