Portland State University students could lose access to financial aid, IT help and registrar services Monday if 4,600 university workers strike. Fall term classes begin the same day at PSU and three other state campuses.

Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 503 members voted 97% to authorize a strike set to begin at 6 a.m. Monday, Sept. 28, the first day of fall classes. The two sides scheduled one final mediation session for Sunday, Sept. 27. If no deal is reached, picket lines will form at PSU's SW Broadway and Harrison entrance and at seven other campus locations statewide, according to Hoodline.

PSU said the university will remain open and classes are expected to continue as scheduled, but warned students to expect longer response times from the registrar, financial aid and information technology offices, according to KATU.

The union represents custodians, dining workers, IT support staff, administrative employees and groundskeepers across all seven public universities. Negotiations with the Coalition of Oregon Public Universities began in February and have stalled over pay, contract length and worker protections.

SEIU Local 503 is seeking 6% in salary increases by July 2027 and a two-year contract. The university coalition has proposed 4% increases by November 2027 spread over a four-year deal through June 2030. Both sides agree on an average 4.62% step increase for eligible employees but disagree on the timeline: the union wants those raises applied over two years, while management wants four.

During 13 hours of mediated bargaining on Friday, Sept. 25, university negotiators raised their cost-of-living offer to 2% in each of the first two years and dropped a proposal to eliminate bumping rights during layoffs, according to SEIU Local 503's bargaining update.

The union said the universities were still seeking to strip contracting-out protections. Ashley Wase, PSU's member on the union bargaining team, was among those at the table.

Earlier in bargaining, the university side had offered just 1.5% in year one and 1% in year two, OPB reported.

Jo Hickerson, chair of the SEIU Local 503 bargaining team and an Eastern Oregon University lab worker, addressed the tension between workers and students at a Sept. 21 union meeting. "… We don't want to do this for the students. But we have to think about our families too," Hickerson told the Daily Emerald.

A union survey found more than half of members worry about making it to their next paycheck. Twenty-eight percent said they were accumulating debt for basic living expenses, and nearly 25% expressed concern about running out of food.

The stakes are not abstract. In 2019, SEIU Local 503 higher education members came within hours of a strike before reaching a last-minute agreement, the Daily Emerald reported.

No response from a named PSU administrator appears in public reporting as of Sunday, Sept. 27.

If the strike proceeds, picket shifts at PSU are scheduled from 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and noon to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.