“Get up! Get down! Bend, Oregon, is a union town!”
A group of college employees gathered outside Central Oregon Community College’s Boyle Education Center, cheering and hoisting signs that read, among other slogans, “No More Poverty Pay!” and “Pay a Living Wage Now!”
Their chants, slightly stilted at first, gained momentum and volume as dusk fell and the campus grounds darkened. “Union power! Fighting for justice and education!” came the crowd’s collective cry.
“We’ve been negotiating since February,” said Scott Dove, an academic technology specialist at COCC. “We are trying to get a living wage for all of our classified employees here.”
Until recently, the college’s 121 classified staff members (non-faculty employees like custodians, IT support, and administrative assistants) were represented by their own independent, in-house union, the Classified Association of COCC.
But, as COCC data specialist Liz Patterson told the Source, “The last couple contracts, we have not had the strength in numbers or finances to be able to really push the college to pay us a living wage.”
This spurred an almost unanimous (107 of 121 members, 14 did not vote) decision by the union to join the Oregon Education Association, which advocates for more than 40,000 public educators statewide. “[CA-COCC] will still be our own little unit, but OEA will be there at the table to fight for us,” Patterson said.
“Our lowest paid workers make $18 and change an hour,” Dove explained. “We would like to increase that to the living wage, as proposed by M.I.T., which is $25 and change an hour, and we would like to increase everyone else’s salary proportionally to that.” This roughly translates to a 43% increase and about $16,000 in additional pay.
A pamphlet distributed by CA-COCC demands a “small increase in priority for classified staff” to prevent them from being “left behind.” The union statement goes on to say, “There’s $5 million missing from management’s latest proposal. And that’s just to maintain current [fiscal year 2025] spending levels. Staff deserve better. Settle a fair contract!”
CA-COCC claims that the college’s most recent offer costs, “just $1.3 million of the $43.3 million” in new revenue projected over the next four years. This revenue estimate is cited as coming from COCC Vice President of Finances and Operations Michael LaLonde, who said they “reflect partial or simplified references to COCC’s long-range financial forecast.” He pointed to a presentation that he shared with the college Board of Directors for the “official projections,” which estimate that the college will have $15.4 million in “Ending Fund Balance/Resources available” by the 2030/31 academic year, a $5.1 million increase from 2026/27.
Back in June, the VP provided more figures at a COCC Investment Committee Meeting. Although “cash levels have remained over $25 million going back to 2018, reaching a high of $45 million in 2025,” LaLonde is predicting that the college wallet will start drying up next year, “due to construction projects in Madras and Redmond, as well as deferred maintenance needs. This spending will bring cash balances down to $35 million by 2031,” the Committee Meeting packet reads. Also mentioned as “factors that could impact the cash balance” were Trump’s tariffs, rising interest rates, and, to come full circle, “the current and future union negotiations.”
In data specialist Patterson’s opinion, money should be going to the workers who keep COCC operational on a daily basis, not ambitious expansions and renovations outside of Bend. “They’ve got a lot of money in their pockets,” she said. “They just need to spend it on us.”
Tech specialist Dove asked Deschutes County residents to pay attention and empathize with the union’s struggle. “What I want them to know is that many classified staff cannot afford to live in Central Oregon right now. We have people living out of cars… The college can afford to do better.”
Patterson echoed Dove’s comments. “1 in 4 of us are receiving food assistance… We’re the support staff – the students see us. We’re cleaning the bathrooms, helping [students] register for classes, advising them, we’re helping them get food assistance,” she said tensely. “We are the face of the college and if we’re hungry too, that’s not a good look.”
“Central Oregon Community College deeply values the contributions of all our classified staff,” COCC President Greg Pereira wrote in a statement provided to the Source. “These employees are essential to our students’ success and to the daily operations of the College… COCC remains committed to reaching a fair and equitable agreement that balances our responsibility to employees with our obligation to maintain the College’s long-term financial stability and serve students across Central Oregon. We appreciate the dedication of our classified staff and the vital role they play in supporting our mission.”
The next negotiations will take place in a meeting on Nov. 19, from 3-6pm in COCC’s Boyle Education Center boardroom.
Editor’s Note: This article was updated on 11/21 with information from COCC VP LaLonde, and to clarify that 14 CA-COCC members did not participate in the vote to join OEA.
This article appears in the Source November 20, 2025.
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