January Membership Meeting
As a reminder, our monthly membership meeting will be Thursday 1/16 from 5:30-6:30pm in Health Sciences Building T-498. The proposed agenda for the meeting is as follows:
- Approve Agenda
- Approve Minutes
- Equity Survey Organizing
- Update on Iranian-American Detainments
- 2020 Budget
- UAW Regional Update
- Organizing Workshops & Solidarity Actions
- Discussion of Presidential Endorsement Process
- Adjourn
All members in good standing are encouraged to attend, and new members may sign up to join the union at the meeting. As always children are welcome!
Tax Amazon campaign launch
On Monday, 4121 members joined hundreds of other community members for the swearing-in of long-time champion of our union, Kshama Sawant, for her third term on Seattle City Council. Her swearing-in was followed by the launch of the Tax Amazon 2020 campaign, a critically-needed campaign to tax big corporations in order to fund high-quality, permanently-affordable, public-owned housing for working people in Seattle. Among many other powerful speakers, UW Postdoc Anzela Niraula spoke about how the UW is one of many employers in Seattle making more and more money while workers make less, and regardless of their job, workers across Seattle are fighting the same fight — the fight for a more livable city for working people.
There will be many opportunities to get involved with the Tax Amazon 2020 campaign in the upcoming months — email housing-justice@uaw4121.org to get involved!
Equity survey
Equity Survey 2020 is fast approaching! Two years ago, we bargained hard to tell the UW admin that equity is not optional and won our equity survey. Last year, thousands of academic student employees and postdocs took the first ever equity survey. Next week marks the beginning of our 2020 Equity Survey and at last month’s membership meeting, members decided on a goal of reaching majority participation. Expect an email early next week to participate.
MLK Day celebration
Celebrate the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. with our community partners for 20/20 Vision MLK Day. Join fellow 4121 members at Garfield High School on Jan 20th for speakers, music, dance, marching, and stand in solidarity with our community.
Sean Brennan memorial
It is with great sadness that we share with you the passing of one of our colleagues, Sean Brennan, who was a postdoc in the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences of the College of the Environment. Sean was an excellent scientist and a cherished member of the UW community and he will be sorely missed. His family has set up a scholarship fund for his three children. We encourage everyone to contribute to it.
Multiple strike actions at UC Santa Cruz
Today, UAW members in the University of California system issued a demand to bargain with their university over “the simultaneous sky-rocketting costs of living and the failure of recent legislative measures to be able to address the housing crisis.” For the past few months, UAW members on the UC Santa Cruz campus have been on strike demanding a cost of living adjustment, and at the end of last quarter grad students engaged in a grade strike that has resulted in 20% of all undergraduate grades withheld. In addition, the UCSC K7 skilled craft workers of AFSCME Local 3299 are also on strike for better wages and an end to labor outsourcing practices. For more information about the grad student strike you can go to their website. If you want to contribute to a hardship fund for AFSCME Local 3299 you can do so here.
In solidarity,
UAW 4121 Joint Council
Tina Angerer
Douglas Avella-Castro
Leandro Casiraghi
Monica Cortés Viharo
Meg Drouhard
Max Friedfeld
Vern Harner
Dan Hart
Sam Kastner
Kyle Kubler
Kristin McCowan
Emily Myers
Anzela Niraula
Jacob O’Connor
Nayon Park
Marissa Parker
David Parsons
Cristian Proistosescu
Shua Sanchez
Paige Sechrest
Solmaz Shakerifard
Sam Sumpter
Judy Twedt
Jon Witt
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