April Membership Meeting // Last Day of Housing Survey // CSE Undergrad OpEd // Librarian & SBux Solidarity // and more!

April Monthly Membership Meeting

As a reminder, our next membership meeting will be Thursday 4/14 from 5-6pm via Zoom. To access the link and/or call-in number, please fill out this short form. All members in good standing are encouraged to attend, and anyone who is not yet a member can sign up here beforehand. Everyone is encouraged to login five minutes earlier to help expedite the check-in process. The agenda for the meeting is as follows:

• Approve agenda & minutes
• Organizing updates
• Housing Justice Survey
• Elections Committee
• EPIC Takeover

Any member who would like to propose additional agenda items or submit materials for the meeting is welcome to email uaw4121@uaw4121.org by 5pm on Wednesday, April 13. All members in good standing are encouraged to attend, and anyone who is not yet a member can sign up here beforehand. For more information about how the meeting will be structured and how you can use Zoom’s features to participate, check out this page on our website.

Undergrad TAs win $50,000 through collective action!

Undergrad TAs of the School of Computer Science & Engineering 14x series recently won a huge victory through organizing and collective action, as detailed in this op-ed in the UW Daily!

Despite being an integral component of the department’s large 14x class series, undergrad TAs had not been paid for their training, and were being asked to do unpaid TA work (holding “grading parties”) during a course that TAs were mandated to sign up for. This was a clear violation of our contract, and union members in CSE organized to address this. They filed a grievance with management in the fall quarter, and through countless 1-to-1 conversations with other TAs they turned out nearly 200 TAs to sign onto a petition.

Ultimately through strong organizing, members moved UW administration to agree to fully pay undergrad TAs for training going forward, as well as to guarantee back pay of $420 for each TA, totaling over $50,000. This victory is just one example of the power of collective action,1-to-1 organizing, and a strong contract. holds for us as a union. To get involved in organizing in your department, reach out to the organizing committees: ase-organizing@uaw4121.org for Academic Student Employees (undergrad-organizing@uaw4121.org for the undergrad organizing committee), and uwpubargaining@uaw4121.org for Postdocs.  

Day of Action in Solidarity with Starbucks Workers

Earlier this month, Starbucks workers at Broadway & Denny in Seattle voted unanimously to form a union, making them the 7th Starbucks location to unionize with Starbucks Workers United, and the first on the west coast. This is an incredible show of solidarity from Starbucks workers in Seattle, who have joined with others in a recent wave of unionization drives at Starbucks locations across the country.

However, Starbucks executives continue to engage in union busting — retaliating against organizers, cutting employee hours, and more — and the fight for unionization continues. Saturday, April 23 at 1pm at Cal Anderson Park, join Starbucks Workers, fellow UAW 4121 members, and many others in our broader community for a rally and march in solidarity with ongoing organizing efforts. RSVP here!

Housing Survey Closes TOMORROW

Time is running out to participate in the Housing Survey! It’s critical for every Academic Student Employee and Postdoc to participate, even if you don’t live in Seattle. If you haven’t already, please take a few minutes now to fill it out before it closes TOMORROW, Friday April 8th at 11:59pm.