University of Oregon backs off its challenge to faculty union

Northwest Labor Press:

A new faculty union at the University of Oregon was certified by the Oregon Employment Relations Board April 27, shortly after the university’s administration dropped legal objections it had filed against the proposed bargaining unit, which included tenure-related faculty, non-tenure-track faculty, adjunct instructors, and officers of research. ...

Duke Shepard, labor and human services policy adviser to the governor, told the Labor Press that Kitzhaber “communicated quite a bit” with the UO administration. Kitzhaber’s position was, Shepherd explained, “If a majority wants a union they should be able to have it.”

Shepard, a former political director at the Oregon AFL-CIO, personally communicated back and forth with both the union and the university. “We felt it was in everyone’s best interest to come to a swift resolution,” he said.

Shepard conveyed Kitzhaber’s view that it would be “productive to start negotiating a contract and not have a protracted fight over who is in and out [of the bargaining unit],” he said. “Our assessment was the case law is on the side of unionization of workers who want it.”

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