Friday, February 22, 2019
Dear Colleague,
General meeting, February 25th, 5:00 pm
Please join us for our next general meeting on February 25th at 5pm in MolES 115. We will discuss recent bargaining news, elect new bargaining committee members and look ahead to what’s next. If you’d like to be on the bargaining committee or learn more, let us know. Children are welcome: please email uaw4121@uaw4121.org by 12:00 noon on Friday (2/16) if you need childcare.
Equity Survey Reminder
If you’ve not yet done so, we urge you take fifteen minutes now to fill out our Equity Survey. Feedback from all Postdocs is crucial to winning strong discrimination protections at the bargaining table!
Bargaining Update
On Wednesday, we reached tentative agreement on the Professional Development and Career Counselling section of the contract, enshrining the training aspect of Postdoctoral work and getting access to career development resources. We also exchanged proposals on Intellectual Property and Academic Rights, Appointments and Reappointments, and Layoffs. In addition we passed proposals on Duration, Management Rights, Purpose and Intent, and Time and Effort Commitment.
Our Appointment and Reappointment proposal contained initial appointment lengths of at least two years, with a minimum one year appointment in certain circumstances such as lack of funding. Our proposal would improve the Postdoc experience as it brings stability and removes the stressful process of annual visa renewal. The UW administration team cited administrative convenience when they proposed one year appointments with shorter terms in certain circumstances such as lack of funding.
UW Admin also passed us a counter-proposal on International Postdocs that fails to address the problems we are trying to remedy regarding work authorizations. Postdocs have overwhelmingly indicated they want more support from the University on immigration issues. We therefore responded with a counterproposal that reiterates our demands for extending appointment lengths (thus minimizing visa renewals), offers the option of H1B visas for all Postdocs, and ensures better administrative and financial support for visa processing and an expedited grievance procedure for International Postdocs. We will continue to pressure the Administration to take these issues seriously. You can read all current proposals and tentative agreements .
We have bargaining sessions next week on Tuesday and Friday.
As always, this is your union, so don’t hesitate to get in touch via ,or our inbox!
In solidarity,
Your UWPU / UAW 4121 Bargaining Committee
Tina Angerer, Bioengineering
Pamela Baker, Biological Structure
Matt Crane, Chemistry
Marina Dütsch, Earth and Space Sciences
Max Friedfeld, Chemistry
Hannah Horowitz, Atmospheric Sciences
Ajay Jajodia, Medical Genetics
Jiae Lee, Biochemistry
Kelly Patton, Physics
Hossein Sartipizadeh, Aeronautics & Astronautics
Abdul Basit Shaikh, Pharmaceutics
Thomas Smith, Medical Genetics
Michael Taylor, Bioengineering
Jian Wang, Chemistry
Alex White, Psychology
Huajun Xu, Chemistry