Dear Provost Serio
UAW 4121's response to UW Admin's statement on negotiations
On April 11, UW Provost Tricia Serio put out a statement detailing UW’s position on contract negotiations with ASEs. She got a couple things right… and a lot of things very wrong.
We’re glad UW Admin values ASEs’ contributions to the research and academic excellence of UW. And we are certainly committed to reaching an agreement that meets the needs of ASEs, and creating a stronger UW. Finally, we are encouraged to hear that UW Admin agrees it must do more to compensate ASEs fairly in light of the cost of living in the Puget Sound area.
However, Provost Serio’s post is disingenuous about the reality of ASE compensation — and about the university’s failure to prepare for the completely foreseeable future. ASEs are long overdue for real wage increases, and the University knows it.
The reality is that UW is falling increasingly behind industry standards. Across the country, Academic Student Employees are winning better pay and benefits after years of living far below the poverty line. In a few months, the lowest-paid of our ASE colleagues at the University of California will make $3,777.83 per month. Our ASE colleagues at WSU Vancouver, having just won their first contract in January, will be making $3,124 per month. Meanwhile, the base rate for ASEs at UW is just $2,664 – and UW’s latest proposal would bring it up to just $2,823.84 this Fall.
While UW Admin is claiming they value ASEs, their proposals at the table say something different. UW is offering a 6% annual increase (followed by 5% each of the following years) and at the same time proposing to reduce their share of our health insurance premiums by 15%, making ASEs pay over $1,100 more per year for the same coverage. To add insult to injury, UW Admin is also proposing to eliminate ASEs’ hard-work workload maximum, and insisting on new language that would make it easier to fire ASEs. These are the proposals behind what Provost Serio calls the University’s “good faith” efforts to reach agreement with ASEs.
Given these proposals, some of Provost Serio’s words ring false. She said we have a “shared responsibility to be intentional about the impact of the decisions we make as the foundation of good faith in bargaining.” If we take them at their word, then their promises ring hollow.
UW Admin has had three years to prepare for negotiations. They have seen how wages in our industry have been rising and how the cost of living in Puget Sound has gone up. Instead of taking responsibility for their own lack of planning, UW Admin is choosing to ignore reality. And now, they’re insisting on offers that shift the burden of their poor planning onto ASEs.
We’ve seen this lack of planning by UW before, and it’s led to significant disruption. For example, when RSEs bargained in 2023 and pointed out that their wages were 30% behind market according to UW’s own analysis, University negotiators denounced RSEs for making wildly unrealistic proposals – only to agree to them later in the face of a strike.
ASEs at a $9 billion premier research institution should not have to choose between healthcare and rent, but we know that’s what will happen if UW Admin gets their way. Too many ASEs can no longer afford to live in the Seattle area and make ends meet. There are ASEs sleeping out of vans during the work week. There are ASEs skipping meals and relying on food banks, and unable to visit dying relatives because our wages are not keeping up with costs in our region.
As the largest public employer in the state of Washington, UW has a duty to the people of Washington—the people they serve. UW can choose to be a part of the solution & a part of moving toward greater equity in our region. Or it can choose to be a part of the problem that institutional greed has created and is exacerbating in our region. We want to work together to raise the bar, keep UW competitive, and also ensure that the people who power teaching and research here can afford to live where we work.
From the 3/29 Cherry Rally to the 4/17 Putting our Power into Practice Pickets, we’ve been clear about what it would take to make sure working at UW continues to be sustainable for everyone, not just the privileged few. That’s why 99.11% of us that voted in the SAV called for the bargaining team to authorize a strike if circumstances justify. Striking is a last resort, but if UW Admin continues to stall at the bargaining table and not present substantive proposals on key issues such as compensation and non-citizen protections, we are committed to taking that step to ensure that UW is a place where everyone can thrive.
Follow along on our Bargaining Portal for updates.
In solidarity,
ASE Bargaining Team
Natalie Wellen (Applied Mathematics)
Justin Applegate (Biochemistry)
Tahiyat Rahman (Physics)
Anastasia Schaadhardt (Information School)
Soohyung Hur (Geography)
Yuying Xie (Geography)
Francesca Colonnese (English)
Candice Young (Molecular & Cellular Biology)
Natasha Crepeau (Mathematics)
Nelson Niu (Mathematics)
Jayden Wood (Mechanical Engineering)
Peter Lindquist (Earth & Space Sciences)
Miro Stucke (Forestry)
