UO Board of Trustees Petition
Demand the University of Oregon Board of Trustees to Cut Ties with Bigfoot Beverages!
The Teamsters represent workers at Bigfoot Beverages, the primary soda supplier for the University of Oregon (UO). Teamsters were forced to go on strike by Bigfoot because the company is trying to take away the workers’ pensions. Bigfoot has also retained Fisher Phillips, one of the most vicious anti-union law firms in the country.
Join us in standing up for Bigfoot workers and protecting the retirement security they deserve. Sign this petition and let the University of Oregon Board of Trustees know that we expect them to stand with workers — not with corporate interests trying to exploit them.
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To:
Demand the University of Oregon Board of Trustees to Cut Ties with Bigfoot Beverages!
From:
[Your Name]
To the University of Oregon Board of Trustees:
We, the undersigned, call on the University of Oregon to severe ties with Bigfoot Beverages.
Bigfoot is one of the largest soft drink and alcohol distributors in the Pacific Northwest. It has caused a strike at all five of its facilities because the company is trying to force Teamsters who work there into a 401(k) plan that only provides the workers with a fraction of the benefits that they currently receive. This is effectively a pay cut and it undermines the financial stability that workers have spent years building.
Despite branding itself as a "community partner," Bigfoot's actions speak louder than words. The company has hired Fisher Phillips, a notorious union-busting law firm, to push through these detrimental changes during contract negotiations. This is not the behavior of a company that values its workers or the communities it serves.
When employers undermine their workers, it weakens the communities that those workers are part of. This is not activity that any public entity — least of all one funded in part by a student body — should support, either actively or tacitly. More specifically, it goes against the values the University of Oregon holds dear — that of serving the State of Oregon, the nation, and the world. We therefore call on the University of Oregon to cut ties with Bigfoot Beverage immediately.
As a school community, we all do our part to engage in good faith with one another — inside and outside of the classroom. There’s no reason we shouldn’t expect the same of our contractors.