January Membership Meeting 01/13 at 5pm
As a reminder, our next membership meeting will be tomorrow, Thursday 1/13 from 5-6pm via Zoom. To access the link and/or call-in number, please fill out this short form. All members in good standing are encouraged to attend, and anyone who is not yet a member can sign up here beforehand. Everyone is encouraged to login five minutes earlier to help expedite the check-in process. The agenda for the meeting is as follows:
- Approve Agenda
- Approve Minutes
- Approve Board Actions
- Organizing Updates
- Organizing Committees
- Budget Workgroup
- Return to Campus and COVID Health & Safety
- Adjourn
For more information about how the meeting will be structured and how you can use Zoom’s features to participate, check out this page on our website. If you have any specific concerns or accessibility needs, please don’t hesitate to reach out at uaw4121@uaw4121.org.
Return to Campus Health & Safety
On Friday 1/7/22, the UW administration communicated that it is extending flexibility with remote work and classes to the end of January. Members’ organizing around health and safety, as well as the grievances filed last week calling for safe and healthy working conditions, contributed to this improvement on the earlier decision to return to in person January 10.
In order to continue working to ensure all ASEs and Postdocs have access to healthy and safe working conditions, the Return to Campus Workgroup is continuing to meet and organize around issues including access to masks and testing, workload concerns, and options for remote work. Here are some ways to learn more and get involved:
- Sign the open letter in support of the grievances and to demand that every ASE’s and Postdoc’s rights for healthy and safe working conditions are upheld.
- Attend the membership meeting this Thursday 1/13 at 5pm. RSVP here.
- Join upcoming Return to Campus workgroup meetings. More info and RSVP here.
- Join the #return-to-campus-organizing channel on our ASE union slack. You can use this form to be added to the ASE slack.
- Review information about your rights under our contract — including around health and safety, workload, and more. Please note that particularly for ASEs with courses moving remote or hybrid, you have strong workload protections, and cannot be required to work any unpaid hours.
If you feel unsafe returning to in-person work and have not already had remote work approved, contact your supervisor as soon as possible to request remote work (here are some template emails you can use). It’s important to make and document this request ASAP. You’ll find more important guidance here. Similarly, if you haven’t been provided N95, KN95, or equivalent PPE from your department and you’re working in person, write to your supervisor to request it ASAP.
If you have any questions, would like additional support, or have had any of these requests denied, contact the Contract Enforcement Working Group immediately.
In Solidarity,
Douglas Avella-Castro
Julia Ball
Nicholas Bolten
Tucker Burgin
Amanda Clouser
Kate Conroy
Max Friedfeld
Vern Harner
Colleen Hoffman
Levin Kim
Brianne King
Avi Matarasso
Erin Morgan
Emily Myers
Amal Nanavati
Anzela Niraula
Nayon Park
Marissa Parker
Anastasia Schaadhardt
Solmaz Shakerifard
Sam Sumpter
Samantha Thompson
Braeden Van Deynze
Yuying Xie
Momona Yamagami
Christian Zimmermann