Membership Meeting – Tues 9/14 at 5:30pm
Our next membership meeting will be on Tuesday 9/14 from 5:30-6:30pm via Zoom. (Please note that in order to respect observance of Yom Kippur, this has been rescheduled from the previous email.) To receive the Zoom information, RSVP here. The proposed agenda for the meeting is as follows:
- Approve Agenda
- Approve Minutes
- Return to Campus
- Know Your Rights
- Organizing & Action
- Elect 2021-2022 Elections Committee
- Housing Justice & Rent Control Rally
- Adjourn
Any member who would like to propose additional agenda items or submit materials for the meeting is welcome to email uaw4121@uaw4121.org by 5pm on Monday, September 13. All members in good standing are encouraged to attend, and anyone who is not yet a member can sign up here beforehand.
Decrim UW Visioning Session
On Wednesday, members participated in a visioning session hosted by the Black Student Union, Decriminalize UW, the Black Graduate Student Association and other allied groups that took place outside the doors of the first in-person Regents’ meeting of the year. With speakers from community members, students, and faculty, the event encouraged participants to rethink campus safety and police violence.
We are proud to participate in the Coalition to Decriminalize UW and contribute to this ongoing work. To get involved in organizing this issue and more, join the Anti-Discrimination Working Group by emailing anti-discrimination@uaw4121.org! Please also consider signing Decriminalize UW’s petition, and sharing your $8 million per year vision for campus safety with the UW Regents using this outreach template.
Return to Campus Updates & Vaccine Attestations due Friday
Members are continuing to meet on an ongoing basis to discuss the University administration’s return to campus guidance and policies for Fall Quarter and make plans to ensure our rights to a healthy and safe workplace are upheld. If you are interested in joining these meetings (Mondays at 4-5pm) or staying connected to this work, please fill out your information here.
All current UW employees (ASEs and Postdocs) must fill out their vaccine attestation in Workday no later than September 10th. New hires must complete their form as part of hiring paperwork. If you are not fully vaccinated, you must wait until you are fully vaccinated to fill out the attestation.
- Academic Student Employees and other student employees must fill out both student and employee attestations. Students should fill out their student attestations by September 29th.
- All UW employees, including ASEs, must be fully vaccinated by October 18 2021 or have filed for a religious or medical exemption. Gov Inslee has removed philosophical exemptions for students and employees in higher education.
- Masks are required in all indoor settings regardless of vaccination status. Masks are also required for outdoor events with more than 500 people in King County.
For more information about updated policies, resources, and your contractual rights — including health and safety, workload, appointment security, and more — check out the COVID Resource Center.
We’re staying in communication with other campus unions and groups — including frontline healthcare and custodial workers, faculty groups, student groups, and more — about how we can all support each other as this situation develops. Even if you can’t make Monday’s meeting, fill out your information here to stay connected!
Seattle Needs Rent Control Now!
The housing crisis continues for us as students and workers, with Seattle rents increasing by 22% over the last 8 months. To stay in our homes and stand with renters everywhere, the Housing Justice Working Group is organizing UAW 4121 members to fight for rent control alongside Councilmember Kshama Sawant’s office. The Seattle renters movement has already won critical victories against evictions — let’s keep building our power to win rent control!
- Share our statement and sign the community petition.
- Come to the Seattle Needs Rent Control Rally, 9/18 at 4PM in Cal Anderson Park.
- Organize for rent control with the Housing Justice Working Group by emailing <housing-justice@uaw4121.org>.
UAW 4121 Renters Toolkit
In the Puget Sound region, there are many different organizations committed to tenant rights, including the Tenants Union of Washington, Be:Seattle, and of course, our union. The presence of strong tenant rights in the Puget Sound region—and the ability to enforce those rights—is due to the fact that we are much more powerful when we work together in solidarity, rather than as individuals. We’re entering a time of unprecedented tenant power—if we can manage to organize and assert our rights.
Our Housing Justice Workgroup has created this Renters Toolkit to help members do just that. It provides resources for finding a place to live, learning your rights as a tenant, what to do when you’re facing eviction or you need other support, and what questions to ask when you’re considering a rental contract.
If you find yourself needing additional resources, or would like to get involved with ongoing organizing on issues of housing justice, contact the Housing Justice Work Group at housing-justice@uaw4121.org.
UAW Referendum – Update Your Address!
If you didn’t receive this postcard, update your address today for an important upcoming UAW referendum!
This October, there will be a UAW-wide vote on an important referendum, 1 Member 1 Vote (1M1V). 1M1V would change the way officers of the UAW International Executive Board (IEB) are elected. Under the current system, each Local elects a proportionate number of delegates who then vote for IEB officers, and 1M1V would change this to a system where every UAW member votes directly for IEB officers. The vote will be conducted by mail-in ballot in October and November.
You should have gotten a postcard about the vote earlier this week. If you didn’t receive your postcard, you likely need to update your address to ensure you get a ballot when they are mailed out in October. To ensure your address is updated, please fill out this form today! Alternately, if you’ve left UW and are no longer a member, please fill out this short form.
