After nearly 11 months of negotiations, the Lane Community College faculty union and administration reached a tentative agreement Wednesday.
The four-year agreement includes 3% cost of living adjustments for the first two years and 3.1% for the third and fourth years for all faculty. It also includes pay increases for full and part-time faculty.
“We were able to address key faculty priorities,” said Adrienne Mitchell, president of Lane Community College Education Association, the faculty union. “Including job security, expanding protections and faculty rights, such as our non-discrimination clause, to include things like gender, gender expression, immigration status. We were able to update and expand our language on privacy rights and academic freedom.”
Mitchell said preserving reasonable class sizes is another important part of the contract. She added that the parties have also agreed to a timeline for an agreement on safety plans around lockdowns on campus.
The agreement comes after parties met with a mediator in three sessions over the past week. The union had been preparing for a possible strike for the last month or so. Mitchell said 96% of union members voted in favor of going on strike if an impasse was declared.
“We had been doing a lot of organizing work and working together with our community and labor partners,” she said. “Students were holding their own rallies and bringing petitions to advocate to the Board of Education to settle a contract. So, we think all of those came together.”
Both the union and administration expressed excitement and relief about reaching an agreement.
“I think that it came down to both teams really focusing on what is best for students and really focusing on how to make our institution strong,” said Grant Matthews, associate vice president for academic affairs with the college’s career, technical and workforce development programs.
In a news release, Lane Community College President Stephanie Bulger said, "We are proud of what both teams accomplished at the bargaining table. This agreement reflects our shared commitment to our faculty, our students, and the long-term health of this institution.”
The next step is for union members to ratify the agreement and then for the LCC Board of Education to approve it, likely next month..
Provisions of the 4-year contract between the faculty union and Lane Community College:
Salary
- Cost of Living Adjustments of 3.0% in years one (with retro pay back to last July) and 3.0% in year two; 3.1% in year three and 3.1% in year four
- Steps each year for all step-eligible faculty
- Additional longevity step of 1.5% added at the top of all faculty salary schedules on July 1, 2026
- Additional 1.0% pay parity adjustments each year for four years for all part-time faculty
- For full-time faculty who are step-eligible all four years, salary will increase by approximately 30.7% by the 28-29 school year.
- For full-time faculty who are at the top of the salary schedule, salary will increase by approximately 14.5% by the 28-29 school year.
- For part-time faculty who are step-eligible all four years, salary will increase by approximately 36% by the 28-29 school year.
- For part-time faculty who are at the top of the salary schedule, salary will increase by approximately 19.2% by the 28-29 year.
Workload
- Increased Lab rate from 0.682 to 0.75, reducing workload for FT faculty and increasing pay for PT faculty by 10%
- Increase Lec-Lab rate from 0.762 to 0.788
- Increase Lec-Lab for Advanced Tech from 0.788 to 0.8
- Class size maximums set in contract
Other
- Strong job security protections
- Expanded non-discrimination clause
- Updated language on privacy rights, academic freedom
- New safety language and benefits
- Protection for faculty currently living out of Oregon through 2029
- Expanded union release time for Association work
- Increased part-time annual round-up to 0.75 FTE
Lane Community College holds the license for KLCC but has no part in KLCC's editorial process and does not review news content before publication. This story was also edited by an outside editor from the Northwest News Network.
