The strike by graduate students at the University of Oregon lasted eight days and ended after a 22-hour marathon session with a mediator.

Here the highlights of what the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation achieved in their new contract:

1. a 10% increase in wages over the next two years;

2. two weeks of flex time for medical or family issues, with the time being made up over the next three to nine months;

3. the creation of a hardship fund allowing teaching fellows to apply for grants of $1,000 to help cover the costs of medical emergencies and grants of $1,500 to help to cover the costs of the birth, the adoption, or the foster-care of a child; the university agreed to annually contribute $50 per teaching fellow into the fund, which means that it will initially contain about $150,000; most importantly, to the teaching fellows, the hardship fund will be administered according to terms written into the contract and not more “flexibly” by the university administration.