Bargaining Update: February 21, 2023 CBA Extension
In a joint statement, WOUFT President Melanie Landon-Hays and WOU President Jesse Peters announced today that the union and administration agreed to extend the current CBA for one year, which means collective bargaining will not resume until the 2023-2024 academic year. You can read the complete statement on the Collective Bargaining Page.
WOUFT / SEIU May Day Celebration
Hello!
We need to get a final count to catering for our upcoming WOUFT / SEIU May
Day Party. If you haven’t completed the RSVP yet, please do this by 5 PM
today.
Here’s the link to RSVP: https://forms.gle/kbYuw6USrvdspdi99
We hope you’ll be able to make it…Melanie
Contract Is Settled!
The results of the Article 16 ratification vote were as follows:
Yes 97%
No 3%
Here are the terms:
| Tenure and Tenure Track | Non-Tenure Track |
| 21-22* One step** + .5% COLA | 3.5% |
| 22-23*** One step** +1.5% COLA | 2.75% |
WOUFT President, Melanie Landon-Hays praised the bargaining team and union members afterwards: “I would like to thank the entire WOUFT Bargaining Team for their long, hard work in this bargaining. I also appreciate the efforts of the many WOUFT members who helped in other ways.”
You can read more about the entire bargaining process on the Collective Bargaining Page.
Tentative Agreement Ratification Vote
Now that we have tentatively agreed to Article 16, we are requesting your attendance at a special Zoom meeting on Thursday, January 20th at 4 pm to discuss the changes to Article 16 and answer any questions you may have. We will do this in preparation for ratification.
A draft of the amendments to Article 16 will be made available in advance of the meeting, so please watch for additional emails from WOUFT regarding ratification.
To ratify Article 16, we’ll be using the online voting system, “Election Buddy”. This will be activated during the meeting, but you can vote whether you attend the meeting or not. You’ll receive instructions for voting via your WOU email address once the vote is activated.
Voting will conclude at 6 PM on Friday, January 21st.
Zoom Link: https://wou-edu.zoom.us/j/81845591332
January 17, 2022 Article 16 Tentative Agreement
After a long and challenging session, your WOUFT Bargaining Team is pleased
to announce that we have reached an agreement with the WOU administration
team. Read more on the Collective Bargaining Page.
Article 16 (Salary) Negotiations
Interested in the latest bargaining news? Head over to the Collective Bargaining Page.
WOU Budget Report (September 2021) aka LERC Report
In 2021, WOUFT asked Mark Brenner, an economist with the University of
Oregon’s Labor Education and Research Center, to review the finances of WOU. The goals for the report were
twofold:
- To update and extend the financial analysis conducted by Dr. Howard Bunsis the prior year.
- To evaluate the University’s claims of financial hardship and their decision to lay off faculty.
You can read the entire report at WOU Budget Report (September 2021).
WOUFT Hardship Fund
The WOUFT Hardship Fund was established to help provide economic assistance to members in need.
TO APPLY for hardship funds, complete the form available at the link here
and send an email to the WOUFT VP for Membership, whose contact information can be found here: https://wouft.org/about/ to notify them of your submitted request.
Once your membership status has been confirmed, the request will be forwarded to the hardship fund committee and you will receive an email response regarding the disbursement of funds.
TO DONATE to the hardship fund, send a check made payable to “WOUFT” with “Hardship Fund” in the memo line to the WOUFT Treasurer, whose contact information can be found here: https://wouft.org/about/. Contributions in any amount, small or large, are welcome and make a difference in the lives of your coworkers.
Letters of Agreement Negotiated
Please check out the WOUFT Collective Bargaining page (https://wouft.org/collective-bargaining/) for two LOAs (Donated Leave Bank and COVID-19) that WOUFT just negotiated. The Donated Leave Bank LOA permits folks who are retiring or otherwise separating from WOU to make a one-time donation of up to 520 hours to the Donated Leave Bank. The COVID-19 LOA extends the previous COVID-19 LOA through Spring Term 2021.
Article 15 Cuts
WOU President Fuller has invoked Article 15, indicating that “program or discipline curtailment” is “imminent” at WOU. The President released his Final Plan in early December 2020, leaving the WOU community reeling. The Final Plan included the termination of the Philisophy minor program, which was not in the Draft Plan and which WOUFT was therefore unable to review the cut, a violation of the CBA. WOUFT filed a successful grievance and was permitted to review and provide comment, delaying the implementation of all cuts. After WOUFT reviewed and opposed the cut, President Fuller included the Philosophy minor cut in his Revised Final Plan, released to WOUFT on February 26.
Link to Download WOUFT Response to President Fuller’s Article 15 Draft Plan
Link to Download President Fuller’s Article 15 Revised Final Plan
Your WOUFT Executive Council has been reaching out to key legislators and the press to ensure that they are aware of the leadership crisis at WOU.
If you have any questions please contact WOUFT President Bryan Dutton.
We are your union!
The Western Oregon University Federation of Teachers, or WOUFT, is Local 2278 of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). WOUFT represents all Western Oregon University faculty members employed at or above 0.5 FTE with respect to salary, employment terms, and working conditions. Since 1974, WOUFT has worked to promote the collective welfare of the faculty community. WOUFT works with its affiliated organizations to eliminate discrimination in institutions of higher education, to enact just laws which will improve the climate for students and faculty, and to advance the public image of higher education.
Our affiliate organizations are AFT, AFL-CIO, and AFT-Oregon.
This website is designed to be useful to our members. Here you will find
- contact information for the Executive Council, the bargaining team, stewards, and grievance officers,
- our Constitution and Bylaws,
- information about member dues and benefits,
- training opportunities,
- newsletters,
- reports on bargaining when applicable,
- affiliate (AFT and AFT-Oregon) information,
- a section on your Weingarten rights,
- and more.