Today marked the date we agreed upon with the University during our first bargaining session to make all initial proposals for our new contract. We finished off making our initial proposals by passing language on Health Insurance, Wages, and Fee and Tuition Waivers. The University did not make proposals on Wages or Health Insurance, but noted that they were planning to propose that ASEs pay for part of our health insurance premiums. The University also proposed eliminating the building fee waiver for all ASEs — in other words, a de facto pay decrease of more than $300 per quarter for most ASEs. Representatives for the University also disputed that ASEs provide the majority of one-on-one instructional hours at UW, and suggested that our proposals to increase ASE pay and benefits failed to “understand” the “realities of the UW budget” which they characterized as “Econ 101.” We pointed out that the University’s budgeting practices – such as spending $90 million on Workday – bespeak poor prioritization and waste, not a lack of money.
We also continued discussing the articles on grievance procedure, union rights, and anti-discrimination. The University continues to resist committing to important measures aimed at improving inclusion and equity on campus — including our proposals to implement strong interim measures and remedies for harassment grievances, institute equity committees with structures for accountability, and mandate jointly developed sexual harassment trainings. You can find a more detailed summary of today’s bargaining session here.
Our next bargaining session is Thursday, March 15 from 9am-5pm in Roosevelt Commons West — please make it for all or part if you’re able! We will also be holding a meeting to plan for this session on Tuesday 3/13 at 6pm in Sieg 427 and all members are encouraged to join.
Please also mark your calendar for March 29th at 5:30pm (location TBD)! Members from across campus will be coming together for an Organizing Summit to collaborate on reaching out to others in our departments, plan direct actions for the coming week, and develop a mobilization campaign for making strong wins on our anti-discrimination and union rights demands.
Theresa Aliwarga
Douglas Avella-Castro
Dianne Baumann
Andrea Canini
Anthony Castanza
Monica Cortes Viharo
Meg Drouhard
Kristen Garofali
Katya Kolesova
Dylan Mayer
Mandy McCourt
Kristin McCowan
Elizabeth Mills
David Parsons
Shua Sanchez
Maddie Smith
Sam Sumpter
Arash Tarkhan
Judy Twedt