3/17/2024 Bargaining Update

Hi Colleague,

I’m Anastasia, a member of our ASE bargaining team and a PhD candidate at the Information School working as a Research Assistant.

I came to UW in 2019 to work on disability justice and accessible technology – my current research is in health informatics, working with people who have experienced psychiatric hospitalization. 

As a disabled ASE, I know from personal experience that the current process for requesting, receiving, and implementing accommodations is a confusing, long, and bureaucratic one. I wasn’t surprised to see that so many of us reported failing to receive necessary accommodations on the 2023 Equity Survey, but the numbers were damning. Only 19% of respondents were able to get proper accommodations. This has driven my work with our Accessibility Workgroup, where we’ve been focusing on improving accessibility and expanding access to accommodations in our next contract. If you’ve also been impacted by these policies, I’d love to chat — reply to this email, or message me on our 4121 Slack.

On a broader level, I grew up in Washington state and I’ve seen my home state being increasingly shaped by large institutions like Microsoft, Amazon, the University of Washington, and more. As these institutions have grown, so has the outsized wealth inequality in the Puget Sound that we are facing now – and will continue to face if institutional greed remains the default logic of our region. 

I’m energized by us coming together to demand a better future, and building together a world that works better for all of us. See you on the 29th at noon, by the cherry blossoms on the Quad.

Our fifth bargaining session started off with Management proposing to maintain current contract language on Articles 3: Definitions, 6: Discipline or Dismissal, 18: Management Rights, 26: Training, and the letter of understanding on workers compensation. After reviewing the language during caucus discussions, we tentatively agreed to accept their proposals. We made additional progress towards a strong contract by reaching tentative agreements on Article 1: Purpose & Intent after Management agreed to more specific language, and 28: Union-Management Committee. In the afternoon, we had multiple discussions with Management in which we reiterated our priorities towards a more equitable UW, especially for disabled ASEs and non-citizen ASEs. By the end of the day, we passed a counter to Management’s initial proposal on the new article on reasonable accommodations, emphasizing the need for a clear, supportive, and flexible process. 

With a little over forty days until our current contract expires on April 30th and with seven scheduled bargaining sessions remaining, we are still waiting for Management’s initial proposals on our key priority issues, such as compensation and international ASE protections.

In the coming days, the 2024 ASE Bargaining Portal will be added to the UAW 4121 website. In the meantime, you can access & read the proposals from today’s bargaining session here.

Questions? Want to get more involved? Reach out to ase-bargaining@uaw4121.org.