Summary: February 25th and 26th
This week our bargaining committee continued to discuss non-economic aspects of our bargaining agenda.
On Wednesday the University brought Amy Hawkins to the bargaining table to discuss campus childcare needs and to provide more information in response to the union’s proposal to allow ASEs to participate in the campus CareLink program. These presentations were informative, however the University has not provided a substantive response to our proposal at this time.
On Thursday dozens of members attend bargaining to pressure the University to eliminate the International Student Fee. Multiple participants spoke about how the fee affects the campus climate, signals a non-inclusive atmosphere, and unfairly target one subset of the student population to raise revenue. We also asked the University to account for how they could oppose a similar measure when it was introduced in Olympia and then weeks later support this fee. UW representatives at the table could not answer but stated they would attempt to learn more.
Also Thursday we passed a response to the University’s counter-proposal related to the grievance procedure. Our goal is to modify the procedure so that members can much more quickly receive responses and remedies when their rights under the cba have been violated. The University agreed that the process should be more expeditious and showed willingness to work out a system that would enable this
We also made a proposal to ensure that members’ rights to take leave for reasons of faith or conscience – as provided by law – was enshrined in our cba. The University again responded positively that they intended to reach agreement with us over this issue.
Last we continued to press the University to respond to our outstanding information requests, particularly about the GAIP Health Plan. The University has not yet provided sufficient information for us to fully understand the reasons for the benefits changes or the next steps in the process.
Our next bargaining session will take place Wednesday and Thursday (March 4th and 5th) in Condon 311. All members are encouraged to attend! For a full list of bargaining dates and times please click see the union’s website or the union’s calendar.