Inside One of the Largest Student Worker Strikes Ever

“We will leave after we share our testimony,” said Mae Bracelin through a megaphone, cutting off the dean of students at the podium. “I have seen the discrimination that my coworkers face. I have seen that my coworkers are unable to pay their rent at the end of the month, are unable to eat,” she continued, as the staff and faculty seated around the room squirmed. “I have seen the sexual assault that they face from coworkers, that they face from students. This cannot be allowed to continue.”

Lining the walls of the room, dozens of her comrades cheered. This was April 29, the second day of the University of Oregon Student Workers’ historic strike. Eight days later, they would win the first union contract in the nation covering every undergraduate student worker at a public university.

The union (UOSW-UAW) initially evolved from the university’s chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists of America. Many members got campus jobs specifically to organize (a tactic known as salting), and by April 2023, they had over 2,000 union cards. They requested a representation election, which the Oregon Employment Relations Board held in October. Of the workers that voted, 97 percent supported the union. The following May, they began bargaining with the university.

The campus environment and student workers in particular presented challenges to organizing. For one, the idea of a union was entirely new. “By and large, our union is made up of first-generation, marginalized people who need to work to go to school, who have never [been told that] they are worth a contract,” said Robin Bailey, a journalism major and UOSW organizer with two campus jobs. Students in large workplaces (dining halls, dorms, libraries) had many coworkers and worse working conditions, which made organizing easy. They have been the most militant while those in isolated workplaces (academic departments, labs) would rarely see their coworkers and had better conditions, which made it exceedingly difficult.

Additionally, union organizers were stretched thin. Between classes, work, and union meetings, they had trouble finding time to organize. During the strike, Bailey was forced to drop a class because of the time he was dedicating to the union.

It was apparent early on that contract negotiations would end in a strike. “I cannot overstate how stonewalled we were.… We bargained for eight months…and we had two [articles], which is nothing,” said Victoria Robinson, a library worker and member of the UOSW Executive Committee. In March, the union voted overwhelmingly to strike.

“We said ‘a successful strike is visible, disruptive, and short.’’’ Though Robinson and others were worried about achieving that, she believes that they succeeded. She estimates that around 50 to 60 percent of workers struck while 25 to 30 percent joined picket lines. “We were very disruptive,” she said, and their actions drew attention from the university, local media, and politicians.

A unique element of the strike was its reliance on direct action. On four occasions, groups of striking workers protested university events—including disrupting the summit with the dean of students. “The general tactic [was] go in, fill the room, give speeches, leave,” said Bailey. The university responded by threatening legal and disciplinary action.

After striking RAs received housing charges “between $2,500 and $5,000” and had their meal points revoked, they briefly set up an encampment on a campus lawn. The union then held an event where striking RAs gave speeches. (The housing charges were later reduced.) Finally, on May 5, 54 workers remained in Johnson Hall after it closed at 5:30 pm. According to Bailey, who was part of this autonomous group, the sit-in was unplanned. They were “nervous about the contingency of the picket line” and felt they needed “something drastic.” Their demand was arbitration for harassment and discrimination grievances. Around 10:30 pm, riot police from the Eugene Police Department arrived to remove the students, who took a vote to leave voluntarily.

On May 7, both sides reached a tentative agreement, which workers ratified a week later. It included a $16 wage floor ($16.35 for dining halls), no probationary period, arbitration for harassment and discrimination. There were also significant disappointments, including the amount and timing of pay (workers had been demanding a wage floor of $18.50 and biweekly pay). The agreement also splits RAs into multiple positions with lower compensation. “Some RAs are probably going to come out of this like ‘this fucking sucks, why didn’t UOSW win us 100 percent?’” said Bailey. “We really tried, and that’s a fight for our next contract.”