Virtual Lobby Day – Friday, February 18
The AFT-Oregon Political and Legislative Action Committee (PLAC) has made a number of coalition endorsements and has started fighting for legislative wins in Salem. This year is a “short session” so we are working with just 35 days to try to win on key issues.
In the Senate Education Committee, there are a few really important items coming up:
- Healthcare for Part Time Faculty continues to be a priority. AFT Oregon is pushing forward to make the ground-breaking legislation pass last year more accessible and comprehensive. Senator Dembrow has included small edits to language regarding healthcare for part time faculty in the Omnibus bill, designed to increase accessibility by calculating hours as an average.
- Language will be introduced next week to bring greater access to Public Student Loan Forgiveness for higher education workers, adding a “credit hour to hours worked” equivalency on top of some other changes.
- There is language that would make FERPA Waivers a condition of graduate worker employment. This will stop Portland State University from denying union grad workers at GEU contact information for employees in the bargaining unit, as they have been doing for years. This will also prevent Oregon State or University of Oregon from ever doing the same to union graduate workers.
Please join other AFT Oregon members for a Virtual Lobby Day on Friday, February 18th to push these efforts and other pro-worker measures across the finish line. We will be working to get as many meetings put together with legislators across the state that day, and will know what fights lay ahead for working class people in the legislature at that date.