The Associated Academic Professionals (AAP 6200) approved a contract with Eastern Oregon University (EOU) this week. After months of tough negotiations, AAP members received both pay and step increases. They also preserved an important protection for tenured faculty members.
“Under the current contract,” said AAP President Colby Heideman, “EOU can only cut tenured faculty from programs if they declare a financial hardship, and they are required to follow seniority even then. They wanted to change the contract to provide more flexibility for reducing programs, but from our perspective this would have effectively allowed them to eliminate any faculty member at any time, regardless of tenure status.
“As a bargaining unit, I can say that we pushed back hard on that proposal,” said Heideman. “And I’m happy to say that we maintained the article in its current form.”
“The support of our members was crucial to our bargaining success,” said Bryan Lally, AFT-Oregon Field Representative. “They showed up at the bargaining sessions and demonstrated the kind of solidarity that’s needed to be successful. And the overwhelmingly positive ratification vote shows that we came away with a good result.”