The Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation, which represents roughly 1,200 student employees — including research assistants, graders, and instructors who teach classes, labs, and discussion sections — announced the deadline after 98% of participating members voted this week to authorize a strike, according to a union press release issued early Saturday.

"Coming towards the end of the term is grading crunch time," said Amelia Cuomo, co-chair of GTFF's bargaining team. "Students want their final grades. They have midterms and final exams that they're taking. And if we go on strike then, withholding all of that information is a more powerful strike."

The union and the university have been negotiating for eight months and entered state-led mediation in September. The core disagreements center on health care, job security, and salaries.

UO is asking employees to cover a larger share of their health insurance premiums, saying the union's latest insurance proposal has increased the school's annual costs by $1.6 million. The union wants the university to convene a workgroup to find ways to lower health care spending in the future, but for the remainder of this fiscal year it is asking UO to absorb a larger share of the costs.

Cuomo attributed the rising insurance costs to broader economic factors and to members using their benefits more heavily. "It's a big unknown how much these costs are going to increase by, and somebody has to take on that risk," she said. "GEs are in a less financially stable position."

The union is also seeking to preserve graduate educator support positions that the university wants the authority to cut, and it argues that UO's salary offers do not keep pace with the cost of living in Eugene or with potential increases in members' health care costs.

Both sides agree there will be no raise this fiscal year. The university has offered 2.5% raises in each of the following two years, while the union is asking for 3.5% and 4% increases.

In a Nov. 6 update posted to its bargaining webpage, the university said the parties "have had two more productive mediation sessions and have reached tentative agreement on all non-economic articles." The next mediation session is scheduled for Monday, Nov. 9. A university spokesperson declined further comment Friday, referring to that statement.

Cuomo said she expects additional mediation sessions could follow.

The strike authorization comes amid a period of heightened labor tension across the university. UO's classified employees union narrowly averted a strike earlier this year, the faculty union reached a last-minute deal to avoid a walkout last year, and student workers struck for more than a week before reaching a tentative agreement in May 2025.

In 2024, UO and GTFF reached a deal days before a strike was set to begin. But Ava Guhama Olson, a vice president for communication with GTFF, said the dynamics have changed this time. "This year has been a very different experience," she said. "It's been generally difficult to pin UO down."

For students and faculty, the timing of a potential strike is significant: a walkout near the end of fall term could leave final grades and course completion in limbo, and the university may need to cancel classes or labs that rely on graduate instructors. The dispute also reflects a broader affordability squeeze facing graduate workers in Eugene, where rising rents and health care costs are outpacing stagnant wages.

The union's strike deadline falls one week after the next scheduled mediation session, leaving a narrow window for a deal.