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Members want higher cost of living raises and to preserve parts of their contract that universities have proposed removing or pausing.
Classified staff at Oregon’s public universities voted overwhelmingly to go on strike at the end of the month.
In all, 97% of voting members of Service Employees International Union 503, the union representing nearly 1,800 staff at University of Oregon, voted this week to go on strike Sept. 28, the first day of school for undergraduates at UO.
The union, which represents university employees like custodians and library workers across the state, has been bargaining with Oregon’s seven public universities for nine months.
Members want higher cost-of-living wage increases and they oppose universities’ efforts to change existing contract provisions concerning step increases and certain worker protections.
“We are prepared to strike if management doesn’t bring fair proposals to the bargaining table,” said Johnny Earl, president of SEIU 503, in a Thursday, Sept. 17, news conference announcing strike vote results.
Pay is the biggest sticking point. Universities are offering a 1.5% base wage adjustment in 2026 and a 1% increase in 2027. The union wants a 3% increase in both years.
“Most of my co-workers I work with in dining have to have two jobs to support their families when they work at the universities, and they’re claiming SNAP benefits because they cannot afford to provide for themselves or their families,” said Rieley Umphress, a UO catering sales coordinator and SEIU bargaining delegate.
Jennifer Smith, the president of the SEIU’s UO chapter, said the universities originally proposed no cost of living adjustment, despite all members of the administration receiving 3% hikes. The current annual inflation rate is 3.4%.
The universities also want to pause 4.62% step increases — seniority-based salary hikes — from July 1, 2027, through June 30, 2028, before resuming them through June 2030. The union wants the salary steps to continue as they are through June 30, 2028.
“Salary step increases for eligible employees are projected to cost the universities more than $12 million in fiscal year 2027 alone,” the universities’ bargaining team wrote on its website. “The temporary one-year pause supports responsible cost management while preserving the longer-term salary step structure.”
Both sides’ offers would have the universities continue paying either 95% or 97% of employees’ health insurance premiums. But the universities’ proposal extends that arrangement through June 30, 2030, compared with June 30, 2028 under the union proposal.
The union also proposes increasing the 2.5% longevity premium — an additional payment for employees based on years of service — by one-half percentage point every five years after an employee becomes eligible, while the university would keep the premium flat at 2.5%.
Another sticking point is contract language surrounding the use of contracted workers and layoff protections.
Smith, the union’s UO chapter president, told Lookout Eugene-Springfield that the universities want to remove “essential articles” from their contract, including layoff protections and a rule that requires the administration to conduct a feasibility study before contracting out work to companies.
“The university would like to not have so many employees and just pay a contractor to do slapdash work,” she said. “We’re always on guard for that. They do have the ability to contract out, but they have to do a feasibility study in order to do that. It’s just one barrier for them, and they want to get rid of that barrier.”
The union said it would deliver a 10-day notice of strike to the universities Friday. Leaders say they hope the strike will be fast, or that universities will reach a settlement with the union before it begins.
If classified staff do go on strike, the 5,000 first-year UO students will be forced to dine at only one dining hall staffed by managers, Umphress said, pointing to one example of how employees’ absence will be felt on campuses.
“If we go out on strike, that’s really serious,” Smith said. “We take that really seriously. It is disruptive. It is, and that’s part of it. And it’s a sacrifice for employees. It’s incredibly scary and nerve-racking to do that. But there’s a point where if we don’t hold firm and have some short-term pain, we’re going to have years and years of long-term pain.”
The union did not immediately provide the number of members who participated in the vote. The last time SEIU 503 voted to strike was in 2019, leaders said. The SEIU 503 higher education bargaining unit includes about 4,600 classified workers at Oregon’s seven public universities.
The universities’ bargaining team did not immediately return a request for comment.
The universities “have been engaged in contingency planning in the event SEIU’s membership authorizes a strike and then further issues … a statutorily required 10-day strike notice,” the universities’ bargaining team wrote on its website earlier this month.
