Dozens of Portland Community College faculty, staff and students spoke directly to the college’s president and board of directors at a remote meeting Thursday night. And their message was clear: meet union demands, end the strike and get students back in the classroom.

“A college isn’t defined by a balance sheet. It’s defined by the relationship between students and the people who teach them,” PCC Cascade student Rachel Thomas told directors in front of 500 attendees at the virtual meeting.

“Right now, the people who teach us are outside, not because they want conflict, but because they want to feel valued for the work they do every day,” she said.

Thomas’ comments elicited loud applause from PCC union members who had organized a party at the Oregon Education Association office in Southwest Portland to watch the board of directors meeting.

The faculty and staff unions at the state’s largest higher education institution have been on strike for more than a week. It’s the first-ever strike at a community college in Oregon.

PCC’s Federation of Faculty and Academic Professionals and its Federation of Classified Employees represent over 2,000 workers at the college’s four Portland campuses. Both unions say they are seeking wages that keep up with inflation.

PCC has said it does value its faculty and staff but that it must also balance increasing costs with flattening state support, a challenge facing all of the state’s public higher education institutions.

The ongoing strike has caught the attention of several elected officials.

Eight members of the Portland City Council — including Council President Jamie Dunphy — signed on to a letter calling on PCC’s leaders to negotiate in good faith and address the union’s cost of living concerns.

“At the core of PCC’s mission is serving students who would otherwise be unable to afford post-secondary education ,” read the letter in an Instagram post published Thursday. “Yet that mission falls short when PCC faculty and staff themselves are unable to comfortably pay their bills or live in the places where they work.”

Speaking during the meeting’s public comment period, Oregon Rep. Lamar Wise, D-Portland, acknowledged that PCC leadership is navigating tough financial waters, but he urged the college to make stronger wage adjustments.

The two unions are bargaining over the final two years of separate four-year contracts. All sides have shown movement on wages since February’s last, best and final offers, but they are still far from an agreement.

“I’d strongly encourage you to help move this toward a fair agreement and contract because the longer this goes on, the harder it gets for students, for workers and for trust in this institution,” Wise said.

But PCC students, faculty and staff say they have already lost trust in the institution.

Both unions and the college’s student government have overwhelmingly passed a vote of no confidence in PCC President Adrien Bennings’ leadership.

Bennings was present at Thursday’s meeting but did not speak directly to the strike.

PCC’s student trustee Fareeha Nayebare said students feel that the college’s current leaders have had a significant negative impact on the institution.

“What we’re experiencing today — the strike, the disruption of our classes, the uncertainty — did not just come out of nowhere,” Nayebare told her fellow directors at the meeting. “It’s a result of the decisions that we made, the missed alignments we went through.”

“And now we, the students, are facing all the consequences of our actions,” she said.

The strike has had a big impact on students. It could possibly delay final grades for the college’s winter term and set back financial aid awards for some students for the upcoming spring term.

Other students and staff at the meeting questioned college leaders’ recent decisions to give a cost-of-living adjustment to Bennings and other administrators. They were also skeptical of moves to pad the college’s reserve fund.

Bargaining teams for the unions and the college are scheduled to continue negotiations Friday.

This story may be updated.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/03/20/portland-community-college-tensions-rise-strike-continues/