UAW 4121

Postdocs: Health Care Petition, Childcare, and Bargaining Survey

Make sure you join with our postdoc colleagues and add your name to our petition calling on UW to provide health insurance for all postdocs! It harms all of us when any of us are without healthcare, and UW’s actions disincentivize postdocs from bringing additional funding to the University. Our Family Friendly workgroup is working to support Postdoc parents and caregivers and is developing guidelines to administer the Childcare Fund from Article 5 of our contract. Email us to get involved! Additionally, we are developing our bargaining survey for our upcoming contract negotiations. Please contact us if you want to get involved in developing and implementing the survey.

Labor Day Events and Actions

This coming Monday is Labor Day — join in solidarity with fellow 4121 members and others in the labor movement for some of these important events and actions: 

Fighting for Workers Rights and Racial Justice (online)

  • When: Saturday 9/5 from 10am-12pm
  • What: Join a number of unions from Washington State and King County for an educational teach-in on the intersections between the fight for workers’ rights and the struggle for racial justice.
  • How to join: Register and receive Zoom information by filling out this form.

Rally & March: Seattle Hospitality Workers for Racial Equity (in person)

Protecting the U.S. Postal Service and Vote by Mail (online)

  • When: Sunday 9/6 at 6pm
  • What: Discussion with USPS workers about how the labor movement is fighting back against attacks and misinformation and mobilizing for the HEROES Act, which includes $25 billion in postal funding to deal with the consequences of COVID-19.
  • How to joinRSVP here to receive a link to the livestream.

Anti-Discrimination Working Group 

Our Anti-Discrimination Working Group continues meeting weekly to strategize and implement a variety of anti-racist and equity projects, and there are a number of ways for UAW 4121 members to get involved. Some of our ongoing work includes:

  • Diversity/Equity/Inclusion (DEI) committees: Currently focused on researching existing DEI committees at UW and best practices for DEI committees; researching best practices for recruitment and retention; developing a toolkit for DEI committees; etc.
  • Membership education: Currently developing anti-racist trainings for members to run in their departments.
  • Department organizing & mobilization: Focuses on supporting members who want to organize around equity/anti-racism issues in their departments, ensuring members know their rights and protections against discrimination and harassment, coordinating with other campus and community groups, and coordinating the rapid mobilization network.
  • Black Caucus: As a reminder to Black ASEs and Postdocs, fellow union members have started a Black Caucus, and would love to have you — please email black-caucus@uaw4121.org for more info and to join.

For more information, or to get involved with any of these projects, please email anti-discrimination@uaw4121.org!

Housing Justice Working Group

On October 15, Washington State’s emergency eviction moratorium will expire, and without bold action to continue it, Governor Jay Inslee will be unleashing a mass wave of catastrophic evictions in Washington. We know that many of our members were already rent-burdened even before the COVID pandemic began, so our Housing Justice Working Group is taking action by getting involved with the Cancel Rent & Mortgages Washington movement. 

To get involved with this critical work, all UAW 4121 members are encouraged to come to this meeting on Thursday 9/10, 6 PM to find out how and why your neighbors in communities across the state are going about this work, and how YOU can get involved and help ensure no debt, no evictions, and lasting housing reform. If you have any questions or would like to get more involved with our working group, please contact housing-justice@uaw4121.org.

International Solidarity Working Group 

Our International Solidarity Working Group continues to be active in taking action to protect and advance the rights of international students and scholars, and you can find recent updates on our website. Also check out two recent pieces on the ISW’s work:
The ISW meets weekly on Mondays at 11am — please email intl-workgroup@uaw4121.org with a non-UW email address for more information or to get involved!

Support UW Medicine nurses and caregivers 

Nurses and caregivers of SEIU Healthcare 1199NW at UW Medicine Valley Medical Center have proudly cared for our community during the COVID-19 crisis, often at the risk of their own health as they worked without adequate PPE during the early days of the pandemic. Now that the first surge of the coronavirus is ending and hospital profits are down, Valley management is looking for ways to save money—and they want to do it by suspending caregivers’ retirement contributions for months at a time. Please take a moment to support our union siblings by signing on to this petition!
In Solidarity,

Douglas Avella-Castro
Leandro Casiraghi
Amanda Clouser
Monica Cortés Viharo
Meg Drouhard
Max Friedfeld
Vern Harner
Dan Hart
Amzi Jeffs
Sam Kastner
Kyle Kubler
Kristin McCowan
Emily Myers
Anzela Niraula
Jacob O’Connor
Elena Pandres
Nayon Park
Marissa Parker
David Parsons
Shua Sanchez
Paige Sechrest
Solmaz Shakerifard
Sam Sumpter
Judy Twedt
Jon Witt