Tomorrow! Public Teach-In
Tomorrow 8/1 from 11am-12:30pm at Jimi Hendrix Park, join fellow 4121 members for a public teach-in hosted by UW Seattle Black Student Union, Decriminalize Seattle, and COVID-19 Mutual Aid Seattle, covering a number of topics related to anti-racist efforts at UW and around Seattle! Topics will include Abolition 101, Policing & Students, Settler Colonialism, Demilitarizing UWPD, and BSU & Student Activism.
UW BLM is also starting a month of events, including an art installation around the George Washington statue. They are calling for volunteers to help with setting up events, mutual aid efforts, transportation, and other tasks. If you’d like to get involved, you can sign up here! You can also support this ongoing work by contributing to the UW BLM gofundme.
 
Our union is proud to be a part of the Coalition to Decriminalize UW — a coalition of students, postdocs, faculty, and staff from across UW, working together to take action for Black students and racial justice on campus. In addition, our union’s Anti-Discrimination Working Group meets weekly to strategize and coordinate action we can take as a union on these issues and more — email anti-discrimination@uaw4121.org for more information and to get involved!
VOTE VOTE VOTE by August 4th!
Primaries are here in WA state! State and local elections are critical in so many aspects of our lives as Academic Student Employees and Postdocs and electing people who will fight for racial justice, progressive revenue, affordable housing, climate justice, and worker’s rights has never been more important. Check out our list of endorsed candidates here and get your ballots in by TUESDAY AUGUST 4TH! Remember, no stamp is needed for a mail-in ballot.
For members who are registered voters but not currently living in Washington, you can still print your online ballot and mail it in. King County elections recommends mailing by July 31st (today!) to avoid delays in the mail, but any ballot postmarked by August 4 will be counted.
International Solidarity Working Group Updates
Our International Solidarity Working Group has been active in a wide number of areas in the past weeks:
- We are coordinating with incoming international students facing difficulties entering the US to activate their F1 status and any potential issues in beginning their work as ASEs. The petition from this group of new students can be found here.
- If anyone knows of incoming international students who are facing difficulties due to the student ban, please ask them to send an email at intl-workgroup@uaw4121.org so we can coordinate with them. We will be sending out a form to stewards with a similar request soon.
- We are working on organizing our information session, focusing on the recent pivot of the student ban towards new international students, as well as other attacks on international scholars.
- Members of the work group participated in a Worker Relief Fund meeting with the Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network and representatives from Governor Inslee’s office. The meeting was centered around relief fund for non-citizens who do not qualify for other federal assistance, which includes undocumented workers and many international scholars.
- Our members have been sharing their experiences and advocating for the international scholars on multiple venues. One work group member presented at a recent AFL-CIO session on “Fighting Back for International Workers,” and reported what our union has been up to. Other unions also reported what they’re doing. Several workgroup members were quoted in the UW Daily, and The Stand (a Washington state labor news outlet) published an article about our work.
The working group will continue meeting every Monday at 11am during the Summer Quarter. Please reach out to intl-workgroup@uaw4121.org if you want to join the next meeting!
Family Friendly Postdoc Workgroup
The Family Friendly Postdoc workgroup is starting back up! Formerly known as the “Postdoc Parenting” workgroup, we have renamed our group to recognize that caregiving work comes in many forms. This workgroup was incredibly active in our last contract campaign and it’s time to restart conversations about how to distribute childcare funds, emerging needs during this pandemic, and demands for our next contract. If you’d like to get involved, email familyfriendly@uaw4121.org.
In Solidarity,
Douglas Avella-Castro
Leandro Casiraghi
Amanda Clouser
Monica Cortés Viharo
Meg Drouhard
Max Friedfeld
Vern Harner
Dan Hart
Amzi Jeffs
Sam Kastner
Kyle Kubler
Kristin McCowan
Emily Myers
Anzela Niraula
Jacob O’Connor
Elena Pandres
Nayon Park
Marissa Parker
David Parsons
Shua Sanchez
Paige Sechrest
Solmaz Shakerifard
Sam Sumpter
Judy Twedt
Jon Witt
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