On May 13, more than 500 Academic Student Employees and supporters turned to the UW Board of Regents meeting (and hit the Zoom capacity!) to demand that admin agree to a contract that meets our proposals. Check out some of the full comments members gave or submitted in writing here!
“In contract negotiations, we’ve proposed reasonable increases to our compensation, that would keep us competitive with peers, and would make clear UW’s commitment to the recruitment and retention of diverse ASEs — both during the pandemic and beyond.” -Sam Sumpter (Philosophy)
“In bargaining, UW’s negotiating team has told us that their goal is for our wages to be 80-90% of the median for student workers at our peer universities. However, we don’t view UW or the work that we do as less than average.” -Vern Harner (Social Work)
“UW has charged us fees for facilities we cannot safely use in a pandemic & parking fares as people transitioned away from communal transit. We’ve suffered through a global pandemic in order to do the work that UW needs to function.” -Jacob O’Connor (Biochem)
“If UW is serious about being a competitive research and teaching institution in a city with some of the highest cost of living in the country, we need to see a change in management’s current last, best, & final offer.” – Kyle Kubler (Communication)
“Many hourly ASEs make $1300 per month or less, barely more than the average cost to live in university housing. Without the lump sum or equivalent wage increase, high fees will only continue to disproportionately impact underrepresented ASEs.” – Levin Kim (iSchool)