Less than 24 hours before the Classified Association of Central Oregon Community College/Oregon Education Association strike was supposed to happen, the staff union and the college reached an agreement. The college announced Wednesday evening that 91% of eligible classified members voted and 98% voted to approve the new contract.

“We appreciate the time, effort and collaboration from all involved in reaching this tentative agreement,” said Erica Skatvold, chair of the COCC Board of Directors, in a press statement before the contract was officially ratified. “Our focus throughout this process has been to support our employees while ensuring we remain financially sustainable and able to serve our students and community. We are grateful to have the opportunity to bring this to closure.”

Negotiations between the college and classified union members have been going on for over a year. In November, classified staff held protests on campus to bring awareness to income inequality. The two sides disagreed about the specifics of pay even after other factors such as “sick leave and personal days … have mostly all been settled”, said Scott Dove, CACOCC’s president, in the final days of mediation. “Wages and insurance are the last two issues that we really have and technically contract duration.”

In February, the classified workers and the college went into mediation with the Oregon Employment Relations Board. Dove explained that when CACOCC was discussing terms with the college during that time, “there was progress made in the sense that at this point, both sides have made a final offer to the state, which is a requirement. And since then, there hasn’t been a whole lot of progress.”The two parties came to a stalemate essentially and the union voted to begin striking on Thursday morning. They reached a tentative agreement Wednesday afternoon and then the union voted to ratify the deal.

“We had a lot of support and a real upswell of support from our community, from our faculty, and from our students,” Dove said. “We had so many students telling us that they had emailed their (COCC) board members, they have contacted the president and so on. And those are just the ones that told us. I think there’s a lot more that did, that didn’t (tell us). And so that was hugely, hugely heartening. And we are so thankful for that because I think that support really helped us to get to a much better place with the agreement that we ended up reaching with the college.”

Dove expressed gratitude and support to all the people who helped and gave a shout-out for the bargaining team, contract action team, to the secretary who invented a business portfolio for them in like two weeks, and all of the classified staff and members of the community who helped make this possible. This moment also feels like a relief and surreal for some, while also expressing a sense of unity among administrators, classified staff, and faculty.

Classified staff are the support system of the college. There are about 124 classified employees who work at COCC to aid faculty, students and administrators. Classified staff work as lab technicians, in veteran services, in residential housing, as maintenance workers, in information technology services, and in financial aid.

With the strike averted, Administrative Assistant and classified union member Kate Donahue, who likes to be known as the Front Desk Goddess at Wickiup Hall Residence Hall, shared her thoughts on the positive outcome, “I’m delighted that we came to an agreement. I’m relieved. It’s been a very interesting experience. I’ve been a worker bee for 55 years, so I have never been in this position before with representation. I’m thrilled at the representation that we had. And yeah, I think that good things can happen. And I think we really know that there’s a lot of work that we can do to even make it better for everyone here at COCC.”

If the strike had occurred, it would have been the second community college strike in Oregon. The first, a three-week strike at Portland Community College, ended earlier this week. It also would have been the first ever in Central Oregon’s Community College’s history, and would have had a significant impact on students, staff and faculty.

On Friday the classified staff will be celebrating with a waffle breakfast.