Oregon State grad students allege the university owes them backpay

Dozens of graduate employees at

Oregon State University

rallied outside the university’s administrative offices Thursday, June 5, because they say some workers are owed at least $17,000 in backpay.

It appears to stem from a disagreement over when their latest

contract was ratified.

The Coalition of Graduate Employees, the union representing around 1,700 graduate workers, argues OSU failed to give retroactive pay increases to all eligible employees, as promised in their contract.

Because OSU says the contract was ratified in January, certain employees are excluded from the benefit, according to the union’s staff organizer Lauren Nelson.

She said at least 65 graduate workers have been excluded, a number that union President Austin Bosgraaf says includes graduate employees who left OSU after the fall term or whose job classifications changed.

Union leaders maintain the contract was ratified in December after members voted to approve it.

When Mid-Valley Media asked the university about the apparent disagreement, OSU’s Media Relations Director Misty Edgecomb provided a statement, saying OSU valued the work of graduate employees and was pleased to reach a deal on a contract last year.

“We are now working to resolve this matter, as the union has progressed the discussion to arbitration,” she wrote. “OSU’s dual goal remains both honoring the important work of the graduate employees and meeting our responsibility to be a steward of public funds and tuition dollars.”

Strike recap

Graduate employees launched their first-ever strike last November after more than a year of negotiations. Those workers, including teaching assistants and researchers, demanded higher pay bumps and pointed to cost-of-living challenges in Corvallis.

The union eventually struck a deal with OSU on a three-year contract that included merit raises and an agreement to pay workers their increases dating back to Sept. 16, 2024.

The agreement states graduate workers employed on or after that date and who “remain employed by OSU on ratification of the agreement” would get their increases within 90 days.

Union membership voted Dec. 9, and Nelson said the union officially ratified the contract on Dec. 10, starting the 90-day clock to send out those payments, which would have ended March 10.

Grievance

But in an April 3 grievance letter addressed to OSU’s then-acting provost and the university’s labor relations team, Nelson claimed OSU delayed those payments and excluded many graduate employees from receiving them because OSU defined ratification differently.

According to the grievance, OSU claims the contract was ratified on Jan 10, the date the “last member of the OSU bargaining team signed an electronic version” of the contract.

Nelson disputed that date and sought immediate payments to graduate employees she claimed were excluded.

Nelson said OSU denied the union’s grievance on April 25.

Backpay

At the rally outside the Kerr Administration Building on campus, grad workers clad in pink vests and picket signs circled the building and chanted for “backpay.”

Union official Brandi Whiteman, who attended the demonstration, said graduate employees officially returned to work on Dec. 10, after their ratification vote. In her opinion, she said, that shows both parties agreed the contract had been ratified at that time.

Union official and graduate research assistant Vic Quennessen, who also attended the demonstration, claims they’re due about $250 as they were a graduate research assistant in fall term.

“That covers a month’s worth of groceries for me,” Quennessen said.

However, because Quennessen was part of a fellowship this past winter, when OSU maintains the contract was ratified, Quennessen said they’re not eligible for payments.