Time to Send OUS Supervisors Back to School?

Little progress at the table, but a moment of candor

There was no progress on economics and no non-economic issues were fully resolved in the latest round of bargaining with OUS May 28-29 on the Southern Oregon University campus in Ashland. But there was a notable moment of candor from a management negotiator during a discussion of expunging material from supervisory files.

After SEIU 503 PUS bargaining chair Marc Nisenfeld asked why OUS would resist applying the same standards to removing outdated criticism of workers from supervisors’ files as the university system uses in employees’ official personnel files, OUS chief bargaining spokesperson Judy Vanderburg replied:

"Not all supervisors have the proper training to know what they should or
 should not keep. We'd like to get them all trained but right now we're not
 there. We want to be able to work with supervisors on what these files are
 and how they are used."

The union has proposed jointly
 sponsoring training of staff and supervisors with OUS. When asked if this issue
 provided the perfect opportunity for just such training, the response was 
"we think this provides a response for HR to work with supervisors on 
document retention."

SEIU bargainers were buoyed by a turnout of 50% of SOU members at a lunchtime rally in support of our team. 
Members signed an enlarged copy of the unfair labor practice we have filed, and marched to the
 office of SOU President Mary Cullinan to deliver it.

Bargaining resumes Thursday and Friday,  June 11 and 12 at PSU.

More recent news about DAS/OUS bargaining