Membership Meeting
Our next membership meeting will be Thursday 4/8 from 5-6pm, and will be conducted via Zoom. More details about how you can join the Zoom meeting will follow in next week’s email and will be posted here. The proposed agenda for the meeting is as follows:
- Approve Agenda
- Approve Minutes
- Postdoc Organizing
- ASE Bargaining
- Equity Survey
- Upcoming Events and Actions
- Adjourn
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 7. All members in good standing are encouraged to attend, and anyone who is not yet a member can sign up here beforehand.
4/1 ASE Bargaining Summary
We had our third bargaining session with the UW administration today. UW Admin presented a package of proposals for a potential one-year contract, including proposals on Wages, Non-Discrimination, EPIC, Childcare, U-PASS, and more. These proposals largely fell short of the needs of our members, so after caucusing to discuss their proposals, we presented counter-proposals for a potential one-year agreement that would meet members’ needs and prevent UW from falling further behind peer institutions in wages and equity. For a full summary of today’s proposals (both ours and admin’s), check out this post on the website.
Upcoming meetings and actions
- Next bargaining session: Monday 4/5 from 11am-5pm, with a caucus starting at 10:30am. All members are welcome and encouraged to join bargaining. To learn more about the bargaining process and get involved, please join our union’s bargaining Slack by filling out this form. For a full schedule of upcoming sessions, check out our ASE Bargaining Center.
- Equity Survey turnout: To continue building momentum behind our contract campaign and our demands, especially on issues of equity, please fill out our union’s equity survey! If you can help build turnout in your department, email our Organizing Committee (ase-organizing@uaw4121.org) to get connected with the relevant resources!
- For more info on how to get involved, check out the Get Involved page of the Bargaining Center!
International Solidarity Working Group
The UW recently released a declaration, requiring ASEs working abroad to arrive in Seattle by June 2021 or to risk employment. This is severely harmful to ASEs abroad, disproportionately impacting international ASEs. UAW 4121 has filed a grievance to the UW to which the University has yet to respond despite the March 26 deadline. If you are an ASE working abroad being pressured to sign the declaration, please inform the requesting party that the Union is still awaiting a response on the grievance and ask them to inquire the UW directly about its progress. If you would like to get involved with organizing around this declaration, please email the International Solidarity Workgroup ( intl-solidarity@uaw4121.org).
4121 Day
April 1st, 2021 can only mean ONE thing: it’s 4/1/21 Day! In case you didn’t know, our local numbers represent our commitment to one-to-one organizing. We are all for one-to-one (4-1-2-1). This month we will be featuring past and present members, sharing our history, and building on our strong tradition of organizing to improve UW and academia. Happy 4/1/21 Day, everyone! Check out our content across social media — ( Twitter, TikTok (@uaw_4121), Instagram (@uaw4121), and Facebook).
Equity Survey
Remember to take the 2021 Equity Survey! The more people who participate, the better we’re able to demonstrate to UW administration we are committed to making UW an equitable place for us all to work and learn. Further, our annual survey is a way of gathering long-term information about the specific harassment, discrimination, and inclusion issues ASEs and Postdocs are facing at UW. As with the last two years’ surveys, the results will be used to propel future work to address structural causes of inequity, so it’s critical that every ASE and Postdoc participate to ensure the results will be as compelling and representative as possible.
This survey is administered through Catalyst in order to track who has filled it out, but your responses won’t be connected with your identifying information. The results will be analyzed by members of the Empowering Prevention and Inclusive Communities program and our Anti-Discrimination Working Group. For more information and to get involved, email epicprogram@uw.edu and/or anti-discrimination@uaw4121.org
Supreme Court Greenlights Right-Wing Recall: Let’s Go All Out to Defend Kshama!
The Washington State Supreme Court has given the go-ahead to the right-wing recall campaign against Seattle’s socialist City Councilmember Kshama Sawant. In the coming weeks the recall campaign will drench District 3 in dishonest anti-Kshama ads and mailers, and will be sending out paid canvassers to collect recall petition signatures. It’s up to our movement to counter these attacks.
As the Kshama Solidarity Campaign’s latest update states: “We cannot afford to sit by while one of the most effective leaders for working people in the nation is undemocratically and dishonestly driven from office by a right-wing, corporate-funded campaign. We need all hands on deck to launch our fight back. Join us, along with progressive leaders and activists at 11am this Saturday April 3 for a socially-distanced rally at Cal Anderson to build the Kshama Solidarity Campaign and defend against this attack on all working people! www.tinyurl.com/AllOut4Kshama
In Solidarity,
Douglas Avella-Castro
Leandro Casiraghi
Amanda Clouser
Max Friedfeld
Kaelie Giffel
Vern Harner
Dan Hart
Colleen Hoffman
Amzi Jeffs
Levin Kim
Kyle Kubler
Kristin McCowan
Erin Morgan
Emily Myers
Anzela Niraula
Jacob O’Connor
Elena Pandres
Nayon Park
Marissa Parker
David Parsons
Shua Sanchez
Paige Sechrest
Solmaz Shakerifard
Sam Sumpter
Samantha Thompson
Judy Twedt
Momona Yamagami
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