Portland Community College reaches tentative deal with striking union staff

Dive Brief:

Portland Community College has reached a tentative deal with unionized staff, one of two groups that have been on a roughly two-week strike over compensation that has so far effectively shut down campus and delayed the beginning of the spring term.
PCC commenced remote operations on March 11, a few hours before the scheduled start of the strike. As of Thursday, the institution planned to continue remote operations through the day but said the unionized staff could return as early as Friday.
As of Thursday afternoon, PCC unionized faculty and academic professionals remained on strike in lieu of an agreement. The college has expressed optimism that a deal is near, though the faculty union has asked for Oregon’s governor to intervene, according to local media reports.

Dive Insight:

PCC’s strike has pushed back most spring classes by a week. While the spring term still officially begins on March 30, credit-bearing, adult and English language learning classes aren’t scheduled to start now until April 6. The end date remains June 15 as originally scheduled, the college said.

As of Thursday afternoon, a strike page for the two unions said they wouldn’t return to work until they had ratified contracts. The staff union, which reached the tentative deal on Wednesday, urged members to vote on the tentative agreement by Thursday evening.

The strike has affected 2,300 employees across both unions, a PCC spokesperson said earlier this month, though the exact number of striking employees wasn’t known.

On March 19, PCC administrators warned about a delay to the spring term if an agreement wasn’t reached by this Monday. “The timing of a resolution is critical and the timeline for finalizing grades and resolving outstanding coursework for winter term has been significantly shortened,” PCC said in a press release.

The unions, both of which are affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers, asked members to commit to delaying the semester if necessary to win a better offer.

For unionized classified staff, the tentative agreement would nearly double a lump sum payment to $1,350 and add a salary structure increase of 5% for the 2026-27 year, a percentage point higher than in PCC administrators’ offer when the strike began. Altogether, PCC estimates the benefits package would cost the institution $5.2 million.

As the college negotiates with faculty and academic professionals, PCC’s latest public offer comes with three options, with varying mixes of lump sums and salary increases.

The negotiations concern mid-contract adjustments added to other raises and benefits changes scheduled in the union contracts.

Union members authorized the strike by wide margins in February. The faculty union said then that the vote was “not just a procedural step, it was a powerful act of collective organizing.”

Shortly before the strike was set to begin on March 11, PCC announced that it was pivoting to remote operations. The unions accused the administration of moving online to preempt an “inspiring walkout” by strikers. A PCC spokesperson said at the time the switch was a safety measure undertaken while the college determined what resources were available to operate its campuses.

PCC President Adrien Bennings and administrators have emphasized the college’s budget pressures throughout negotiations. The college is currently working to offset a $37.7 million two-year budget deficit, it says.

“Bargaining is occurring during a challenging financial period for higher education, driven by enrollment declines and reduced public funding,” the college said previously on a webpage devoted to the negotiations.

In a recent op-ed, PCC’s board said that the college is preparing for some $21 million in budget reductions for its 2027-2029 fiscal budget. That’s on top of $14.7 million in cuts in its current two-year budget as the college faced heavy operating costs and tight state funding. Millions of dollars in savings have come from cuts to administrative salaries and positions.

However, unions have criticized the PCC leaders for what they called a budget “absolutely bloated by upper level administrator salaries,” with mean salaries well over $100,000 for managers and other upper-level administrators.

The largest college in Oregon, PCC’s enrollment hasn’t recovered from pandemic-era declines. Its 2024 fall head count of 20,861 students was down nearly 25% from 2019, according to federal data. However, in both 2023 and 2024, fall enrollment rose by several hundred students.