A union representing fourteen part-time recycling specialists at Portland State University has filed an unfair labor practice complaint against Chancellor George Pernsteiner and the Oregon State Board of Higher Education.
They say the University refused to include the recyclers in bargaining negotiations over terms of a new contract for the four thousand five-hundred classified employees at the university.
The recyclers, who voted unanimously to join SEIU Local 503, are believed to be the first group of undergraduate students to join a union in Oregon.
Despite an Employment Relations board order declaring the recyclers a part of the four thousand five-hundred classified employee bargaining unit for the university system, Higher Education negotiations have refused to take up bargaining over these new employees.
When the recyclers approached the union early this year, the university did not initially object to their inclusion in the unit, however, university management told union officials and the workers during the campaign that voting for the union could result in the recylers losing their jobs.
KBOO’s Sam Theobald has more...
- KBOO