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Strike FAQ for UO Student Workers
Who is on our bargaining team? How does our bargaining team make decisions about proposals? 2
What Tentative Agreements have been made between UOSW and UO so far? 3
What are mediation proposals? 4
What if a final agreement cannot be reached in mediation? 4
What led UOSW to authorize a strike? 4
What would a strike look like? 4
How long would a strike last? When would it start and end? 5
What is a picket line and how does it work? 5
What if I cannot physically attend the picket line? 5
How do I sign up for picket shifts? 5
How do I not cross the picket line? 5
Can Student Workers be retaliated against for participating in a work stoppage? 5
Can international, DACA, and undocumented students workers strike? 5
Will UO withhold pay from student workers during a strike? 6
How will UOSW support striking workers? 6
What about the people I serve in my job? 6
What are the asks of non-UOSW UO employees and students? 7
Resident Assistant Specific Questions 7
UOSW represents roughly 3,500 student workers who work in our dining halls, dormitories, academic departments, recruitment, cultural spaces, student life, and research. With the exception of Resident Assistants, student workers are paid employees who work for UO and are students whose jobs last longer than 30 days. Our bargaining unit excludes jobs that are represented by other campus unions such as GTFF for GEs and SEIU for classified staff.
Both the UO and our union have a bargaining team. Our team is made up of 17 student workers from various departments who were elected by our members. Since May of 2024, our bargaining team has written proposals based on surveys and conversations with student workers about what we want in our contract. We send our proposals back and forth, trying to reach agreement on language with the UO. So far, we have reached agreement on 19 of our proposals and are currently working on some of our most vital articles such as wages and grievance & arbitration. Once both teams come to an agreement on the entire contract, we will have a membership meeting where you and your coworkers will vote whether or not to ratify our first contract.
Bargaining Team Members:
Bargaining is a legal negotiation in which both sides are required to adjust their original offers. We start the process recognizing that we are not likely to win everything we ask for and that negotiation inherently involves movement and compromise.
The UOSW Bargaining Team is empowered by the membership to make decisions about how to adjust our proposals based on rank-and-file feedback about what our members want to keep fighting for most. To share your feedback as a student worker, you can:
Tentative Agreements (TAs) are agreements that have been reached between the sides on individual articles within a contract, but have not yet been ratified (approved) by union membership through a full vote. The final contract offer will represent the collection of all Tentative Agreements.
Below are the current TAs (as of 4/17/2025)
In mediation, a third-party mediator from the state Employment Relations Board (ERB) facilitates bargaining between the union and the employer. The mediator’s job is to push both teams to make concessions in order to reach an agreement.
If we cannot reach an agreement, either team can declare impasse after 15 days of mediation. This 15-day timeline begins when both teams have their first session with the mediator present. Our first mediation session took place on January 7, 2025.
Unlike formal “bargaining proposals,” “mediation proposals” are non-binding and can be modified or revoked by the party that initiates them. Ideally, they allow the teams to have more flexibility in the content of their counters and make more progress. But because they aren’t legally binding, the progress made isn’t necessarily final until an agreement is signed and ratified.
UOSW officially declared impasse on March 12th. UOSW & UO’s public “Final” offers were published on March 19th. These can be viewed on UOSW’s Trello and on the Oregon State Employment Relations Board website.
Note: Negotiations continue (even following “final” offers) until a deal is reached.
At the end of a 30-day “cooling off” period after impasse is declared, UO can impose its new contract on us and UOSW can go on strike (although neither side is obligated to do so). We held our strike authorization vote March 3rd-14th, 2025. Student workers voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike with a 94.5% vote yes to authorize. This vote gave our bargaining team the ability to declare our 10 day intent to strike notice to the University. We have issued our notice to UO that unless a deal is reached, we will strike starting on April 28, 2025.
All student workers in our bargaining unit have the right to strike, including international and undocumented student workers.
Our bargaining team has been hard at work trying to reach a fair agreement with the UO Administration since the end of May 2024. We have bargained in good faith with the University and have made well-researched, evidence-based proposals based on the priorities expressed by thousands of student workers throughout the bargaining unit, including:
Should the admin fail to agree to a fair agreement on these issues, student workers are prepared to strike.
A strike is a complete work stoppage of the unit currently involved in bargaining. During the strike, student workers will not perform any of our work duties (working shifts at dining, Rec Center etc, on call shifts as Resident Assistants, tutoring, research, and all related duties), but instead participate in picket lines or other strike activities in and around our campus to increase the visibility of the strike.
Student workers will strike until the Administration offers a fair compromise. Decisions about the date and length of a strike would be collective decisions made by student workers.
A picket line is a public expression by striking workers of their dispute, which conveys a request for other workers and community members to join them in solidarity. The strength of our picket line also reflects the power we have as student workers withholding our labor, so having as many coworkers as possible join the picket line is crucial in pressuring the university to meet our demands.
We have accommodations to fulfill picket or strike duties for workers who are unable to participate in a picket line. Please email uostudentworkers@gmail.com for more information and to sign up!
The most powerful thing we can do now is to be ready to take serious collective action, by showing up at the picket line next week with our coworkers. This is why it is important for all student workers to sign up for picket duties today at the link bit.ly/uoswpicket. Sign up for at least 15 hours a week to be on the picket line, or five three-hour shifts per week, in order to be eligible for strike assistance.
During a strike, going to work and clocking in is considered crossing the picket line. UO Student Workers have the support of hundreds of unionized workers across UO, and we believe that if we all stand together, we can show the university the value of all its workers’ labor, and that an injury to one is an injury to all. Attending classes and otherwise participating in academic activities is not crossing the picket line.
It is illegal for an employer to discipline a worker for participating in a protected labor activity, which includes this strike. However, the best protection we have is our safety in numbers. This is why we focus on mass actions, because the more of us take action together, the harder it is, and the less incentivized our supervisors are, to retaliate against us. If you or any colleagues experience retaliation in any form, please email uostudentworkers@gmail.com and let us know immediately.
All UOSW members have all the same rights to strike and the same access to strike benefits as domestic and/or documented students. Picket captains will be trained to interface with law enforcement authorities as necessary to keep our members safe. Ultimately, it is important that you prioritize your safety and what you are comfortable with. We all deserve to be safe and we can find ways to make things work in the event of a strike. We have accommodations to fulfill strike/picket duties in the event that a worker is not comfortable participating in a picket line due to safety concerns.
Our parent union, UAW, has a hotline to quickly refer members facing an immigration emergency to legal resources. In the event that you are experiencing an unexpected change in immigration status or any other immigration-related emergency, or if you have questions about participating in a strike as a noncitizen, please call this number: (888) 416-2110.
Yes. UO has said they will not pay striking student workers. If you are on strike, do not clock in to your shifts or write times into your timesheet.
Striking student workers who fulfill their picket duties will receive $500 per week through the duration of the strike. Picket duties are set at 15 hours per week on the picket line or equivalent contributions, such as outreach work.
Strike assistance will be distributed through UAW, our parent union. Sign up for strike assistance will happen on the picket lines during the first few days of a strike. We will announce when strike assistance sign-up will take place. It will take 2-4 weeks for strike assistance to hit bank accounts. If the strike lasts for less than a week, strike assistance will be a prorated amount. Sign-ups will take place on the first few days of the strike on the picket line.
Remote work is the same as in-person work when it comes to a strike. We encourage remote workers to join the picket line, even if they do not have a physical workspace on campus. We have accommodations for individuals to fulfill picket/strike duties if they cannot physically be on the picket line.
Many people even live on campus, or have reasons to be on campus other than work. The strike is a work stoppage, that is withholding your labor as a student worker – you can and should continue to participate in the student aspect of your life, including attending classes and keeping up with your studies. However, many things will be shut down. We expect that a strike will impact the regular operations of the University.
We ask that you do not spend money at the Dining Halls during a strike. Since points are pre-paid for, we are not asking you to not use the meal plans.
Student worker working conditions are students’ and peers’ learning conditions. Until student workers are treated fairly and equitably, everyone at UO is worse off. This contract will allow student workers to better help others at their job in the future. Fortunately, students and members of the UO community have been expressing broad support for our campaign for a fair contract.
If you hold two student worker positions and choose to go on strike, you must strike for both jobs. You cannot choose to strike for one and not the other, you would be ineligible for strike pay.