A Brief History of Academic Student Employee, Postdoc, and Research Staff Collective Bargaining at UW:
In 2004, UAW Local 4121 members ratified our first collective bargaining agreement with UW. In the more than twenty years we’ve had collective bargaining, we have won the following:
- Improved Compensation and Benefits that enhance our standard of living: for example, Academic Student Employee base wages have increased by more than 60% since 2014, and a current RA or TA saves as much as $850 per year through our contractual protection against having to pay newly-created student fees, has access to up to $2600 per year in newly-established childcare subsides, and has better health benefits, vacation and family leave benefits.
- Expanded Rights that help us focus on quality teaching and research: protection against unreasonable workloads, job security, health and safety protections, and other important rights.
- A Stronger Voice in policy matters that affect us as public university employees, such as federal funding for research, comprehensive immigration reform, and for higher education funding in our state.
Head to your unit’s Member Center (at the top of the page) to see all of your current wages, benefits, rights, and protections. For more information on past campaigns, check out this page.