INFORMATION ABOUT WOPR AND WHY IT MUST BE STOPPED!

You can find out about the WOPR and how you can help stop it here.

Below you will find a letter you can cut and paste to the Governor expressing your oppostion to the plan.  The Executive Council sent a fuller letter signed by many E-Councilors last week. 

CUT AND PASTE AND SEND THIS LETTER TO GOV. KULONGOWSKI AND HELP SAVE OREGON'S FORESTS!

Governor Ted Kulongoski

160 State Capitol

900 Court Street

Salem, OR 97301-4047

Dear Governor Kulongoski:

I am a member of the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation (GTFF, AFT/AFL-CIO, Local #3544), and I urge you, as the elected protector of the great state of Oregon, to reject the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) Western Oregon Plan Revisions (WOPR).  I encourage you to do this by the end of your consistency review period and 30-day public protest period (Dec. 8), after which the BLM may release its Record of Decision.  Your decisive rejection of the BLM’s WOPR is even more important now that we have elected Sen. Barack Obama as U.S. President.  He appreciates that public forests are crucial carbon sinks that must be properly managed to address anthropogenically-induced climate change, but he needs to hear from you that the WOPR specifically is a threat to climate and economic security in Oregon and nationwide. 

The GTFF, the graduate student union comprised of 1,300 members at the University of Oregon, has endorsed you in your campaigns for elected office. As an endorser of PowerVote (www.PowerVote.org), we applaud your previous efforts addressing the anthropogenic inputs to global climate change, such as by getting ambitious GHG reduction targets signed into law and moving forward with policies to promote cleaner, more renewable energy.  We appreciate your efforts to investigate how we can protect oceans, and we must also take action to protect our other big carbon sink, our forests.  We believe that the WOPR threatens economic and environmental sustainability, which is necessary for job security and quality of life.  As teachers, researchers, students, and workers in a variety of disciplines, we strive to prepare ourselves and undergraduates to hopefully thrive, but at least survive, in an increasingly challenging and uncertain world.  The WOPR would seriously undermine our efforts toward environmental and economic security. 

We members of the GTFF are from all over the U.S. and the world.  Many of us moved here because of Oregon’s natural beauty and unique recreation value afforded by its old growth and clean waterways.  We hope that you will join us in speaking out against BLM’s WOPR, as it would almost certain damage these vital resources.  We believe that you will leave a positive legacy that you and we can be proud of by protecting our carbon-storing native forests on public lands, helping rural communities transition to sustainable economies, rewarding truly sustainable forest management. 

Sincerely,

GTFF Election Endorsements

At the October 3 General Membership Meeting the membership of the GTFF voted to recommend the following votes on your Novemeber ballot.  These votes were not unanimous, but after a healthy debate, this is how the membership voted:

Mayor of Eugene: Kitty Piercy

Lane County Commisioner: Rob Handy

Measure 20-142 (Lane Community College Bond): YES

Measure 54: YES

Measure 56: YES

Measure 58: NO

Measure 59: NO

Measure 60: NO

Measure 61: NO

Measure 62: NO

Measure 63: NO

Measure 64: NO

Measure 65: NO

US Congress: Jeff Merkely

President: Barack Obama

US Congress 4th District: Peter Defazio

State Treasurer: Ben Westlund

Secretary of State: Kate Brown

Labor Commisoner: Brad Avarkian

Attorney General: John Kroger

Rep, Dist. 8: Paul Holvey

Rep, Dist. 11: Phil Barnhart

Rep, Dist. 12: Terry Beyer

Rep, Dist. 13: Nancy Nathanson

Rep,: Dist 14: Chris Edwards

VOTE NOW!

Health Care: Annual Cap Raised

The Healtch Care trust met on Wednesday, the 25th of June, and was able to raise the cap to $250,000 per annum.  This change will take effect when the plan is renewed in September of 2008.

Contract Agreement Reached

The bargaining team today is pleased to announce that we have reached a tentative agreement with the University on a two year contact.  I think it is safe to say the current agreement represents the best contract in GTFF history.  Below is a list of the big highlights from the settlement.  All full members will be receiving ballots over the next couple to weeks to vote on the proposed changes that would take effect in September 2008.

• Extension of the current heath care plan which includes a clause that the University will cover 20% cost increase to current benefits, plus 90% of all cost increase above the 20%.
• Also regarding the health care plan, the University will contribute towards raising the annual cap in health care benefits by giving $250,000 this year and another $250,000 the following  year. This should be enough to raise the cap from its current level of $100,000 to $500,000 next year (08-09) and $1,000,000 the year after (09-10), which will allow GTFs to qualify for FHIAP.
• In addition to the current plan, the University will increase their contribution to GTFs with dependents by $100, by lowering the per-term premium for dependents from $165 to $65.  This reduction in costs to the GTF is in part to offset childcare costs.
• 8% raise to the minimum salary over two years, 4% this year and 4% the year after next.
• $56 reduction in fees per-term, reducing the costs to GTFs from $206 per-term to $150 per-term.
• The extension of the tuition waiver to GTFs who take an “intersession” course.
• The University agreed to cover the matriculation fee assessed to all new GTFs in the fall who have a GTF assignment.  Currently new fall GTFs to the University pay a $250 onetime fee.  This contract would mark the end of GTFs paying this fee.
• Two weeks of paid vacation for GTFs with at least a 9 month research position.
• The ability of GTFs to request a reassignment for positions in which they don’t feel safe.
• Increased access to supplies, computers, private meeting space, and office space for GTFs.
• Additional benefits will be described later.        

The bargaining team is extremely happy with the progress that has been made and we are excited by the current proposal.  Thank you for all of you support, only when we stood in solidarity were we able to reach such a momentous agreement.  The current proposal includes benefit improvements that many of our member needed, including a significant reduction in fees, decent increases in the minimum salary and maybe most important a raise in the annual health care cap, a benefit that many of our members have unfortunately demonstrated the need for.  With this raise in the annual cap, GTFs will have added protection from and unpredictable catastrophic events that often leads to significant financial and other hardships. 

In Respectful Solidarity,

Mark Leymon, President GTFF

We just finished bargaining with the UO. I'm a bit fired up and adrenaliney, so I'll try to be brief so I don't say too much.

I encourage you all to check the bargaining blog throughout the weekend, as I imagine team members will be putting up posts. Any one who was there should feel free to either comment extensively or e-mail me with posts and I'll put them up. http://gtffbargaining.blogspot.com

The UO offered to increase their offers by $80K a year in the form of a $20.60 reduction per term in student fees. There would be no cap on those fees.

They are still offering an 8% increase to minimum wages over 2 years. They are still proposing to cover most of this year's health insurance increase, but NOT to increase the cap.

They proposed a complicated system whereby there might be money to either raise wages, lower fees, or increase the cap...if certain unlikely conditions are met; next year's health care cost increase if less than 8%. It is complicated and I am sure that more explanation will follow, but essentially, they want to lock the GTFF into the idea that in future bargaining all the GTFF could expect is an 8% increase in total compensation and if it all goes to health care, then no raises or fee lowering.

They rejected our proposal on late pay, although they did offer to give us one meeting with a committee that is being put together to investigate the issue and make recommendations. Not to be on the committee, mind you, but to have one meeting with the committee.

Needless to say, the GTFF walked away from the table very unimpressed. Unfortunately, the UO made it clear to us that they were impressed with themselves, so it appears that we are for real a long way off from seeing any settlement to bargaining. Accepting the UO's offers would result in long-term fee increases for GTFs, an increasingly unuseful health care plan, and very possibly no wage increases for the foreseeable future (until we have non-employer based health care in this country). The GTFF as a body will eventually have to decide how unwilling we are to live with the UO's proposals, but I know I speak for the bargaining team when I urge you all reject the idea that this is the best we can do or that the offers aren't that bad. The 50% of GTFs who don't earn the minimum wage would see a benefits increase of at the most $6.86 per month, but that would be eaten up by health care cost increases for dependents and in summer. Even those earning the minimum will lose anything they earn in fee increases, inflation, and health care increases.

We can do better than nothing.

Sorry about the late notice on the bargaining, but we just got the room notice today.

Love to have you all there.

This session the union is bringing our non-economic proposals. We got some articles that deal with office space and supplies, faculty training, catering, grievances, and vacation coming up. It's a full bill. Plus, we'll finally get to see if the Union accepts the University's request to bargain health care early this year! For those that missed the last session and were feeling too good to follow my ramblings at the GMM (and, hey, after the tattoo, I would have stopped paying attention to me too), you can catch up over on the GTFF bargaining blog. We're still trying to get it to be blogtastic, so comment away, especially if you were at the session. You can get there via the gtff homepage -- gtff.net or just go straight to gtffbargainingblog.blogspot.com. (Did I already tell you all that? Sorry, it has been a week and a half...and that was just this morning! (Is there a 'rimshot' emoticon?))