UAOU holds rally as bargaining sessions continue

Ohio University Faculty gather on College Green on Wednesday for UAOU rally. Photos via: Eva Ludke

The United Academics of Ohio University (UAOU) held a rally Wednesday on College Green amidst their ongoing bargaining sessions with the Ohio U administration. 

The focus of the rally centered around the delays in the bargaining process. Sept. 16 marked the union’s fourth bargaining session with Ohio U’s administration. The bargaining session was originally intended to be the sixth, but the schedule fell behind after the university cancelled both the Aug. 8 and Aug. 22 sessions. 

The bargaining process will continue until the two bargaining teams agree on all the terms of the union’s contract and the entire faculty union votes to accept it. So far, 16 separate articles of the contract have been proposed by UAOU, with two of the articles countered by the administration. The current status of each article can be found on UAOU's website.

For the union, the terms of the contract largely concentrate on providing faculty with a more secure and supportive workplace, both physically and mentally. 

“There’s the practical side of [what it means to have benefits]. But, the more emotional side that comes with that is what does it mean to feel valued and respected by the university? And I think that's really important for the day-to-day aspects of doing your work,” John O’Keefe, professor at Ohio U’s Chillicothe campus and UAOU’s director of communications, said. “So you can come into work and you can feel passionate about what you do, right? You've got that energy behind you and that really changes your approach to your day-to-day working experience.”

Faculty members’ concerns about their working conditions became more urgent in 2020 due to a series of lay-offs that occurred alongside the heightened stress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“That was really what got us galvanized,” O’Keefe said. “We did a lot of informal canvassing first to kind of gauge how much support was there … and that was a lot of one on one visits,
faculty chatting with faculty and we saw that there was support … so that's when we had the drive, and then we went public with that.” 

The rally is one of many public demonstrations organized by UAOU. Beginning in March 2024 when a majority of faculty submitted authorization cards to hold a formal unionization election, faculty joined by students and community members held  numerous rallies, public discussions and clap-ins in support of the union’s bargaining team.

Around 50 people attended the Sept. 17 rally, which started with a performance by the Ohio U Percussion Club, followed by speeches from two professors and a student with the crowd occasionally joining in chants such as, “Faculty’s working conditions are students learning conditions,” and “This is what democracy looks like.” 

“When education thrives, students flourish. When our professors have the resources, respect and support they need, students succeed,” Tylar Ayers, Ohio U student and member of Ohio Student Association, said to the crowd. “Today I stand with you, not just in solidarity but in shared struggle and shared hope.” 

O’Keefe said the union is thrilled to see the support coming from the community, “It's really great to see when students and community members come and join us. We don't always expect the amount of support that we've got, but I think, especially in the past three weeks, we've been really pleased to see so many people standing with us.”

Concerning the ongoing bargaining sessions, the Ohio U administration stated that “the University remains focused on working in good faith to negotiate legally mandated terms and conditions of employment as determined by state law,” as communicated by Daniel Pittman, Senior Director of Communications.

Ohio U faculty join the majority of the other Ohio public higher-ed institutions who have already unionized, which excludes only The Ohio State University and Northeast Ohio Medical University.