OUS Bargainers Called Unfair to PSU Students

SEIU 503 Files Complaint Over Refusal to Include Recyclers

SEIU Local 503 has filed an unfair labor practice complaint against OUS for refusing to include our newest members, 14 part-time recyclers at Portland State, in negotiations over terms of a new contract for classified employees across the university.

The recyclers are believed to be the first group of undergraduate students to join a union in Oregon and one of the few in the nation. They voted unanimously to join SEIU Local 503 July 1 in a unit clarification election conducted by the State Employment Relations Board, which certified the union as bargaining agent for the recyclers July 14.

Despite an ERB order declaring the recyclers are part of the classified employee bargaining unit for the university system, OUS negotiations have refused to take up bargaining over these new employees during negotiations for the entire bargaining unit.

The complaint asks ERB to find Chancellor George Perrnsteiner and the Board of Higher Education in violation of state law and order the board to negotiate with the 14 recyclers as part of the current contract negotiations.

The recyclers approached the union early this year and the university did not initially object to their inclusion in the unit after Local 503 petitioned ERB on their behalf in April. But as outlined in the complaint (link], university management told SEIU 503 leaders and the workers during the campaign that voting for the union could result in the recyclers losing their jobs.

“Singling out these environmental workers is union-busting, “said Marc Nisenfeld, a development engineer at Portland State who is president of SEIU 503 sub-local 89. “It sends a terrible message to these undergraduates and given what they do to improve our environment it flies in the face of President Wim Wievel’s efforts to make PSU the nation's greenest university.”

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