 |
Tentative Agreement – When We Fight, We Win!Today we reached tentative agreement on a three-year contract! Keep your eye out for a link to the membership-wide ratification vote that will open on Friday, and read below for more details. Last week’s membership-wide straw poll vote clearly communicated that members needed to see additional movement from admin on their last/best/final proposal. Thanks to members’ active participation and organizing, today we achieved that. As a package, this tentative agreement includes a total 9.27% wage increase (3% per year, which compounds annually) to hourly and salaried base rates, growing the EPIC program to three paid 50% FTE ASEs, as well as improvements we had previously won on gender affirming care, mental health, the childcare fund, and more. You can find more details below. Bargaining SummaryBuilding from the power of the Board of Regents action last week, today we again stressed that improvement on compensation — whether through the lump sum, fee waivers, or wages — was a strong priority for members, particularly when it comes to improving compensation for those paid the least. Management continued to state that they were not interested in a lump sum or fee waiver. However, thanks to our powerful collective action, we were able to move them to increase wages — movement that applies to both salaried and hourly ASEs and compounds over the life of the contract. Is the current contract offer from admin enough to meet every need we’ve expressed during bargaining? No. Is the current contract offer improved from admin’s initial offers because we fought like hell to demand better? Yes. In the past few weeks alone, members have organized for a better contract through actions like the Board of Regents action, the 4/26 rally and bargaining session, dozens of area meetings, membership meetings, thousands of one-on-one conversations, and much more. Continuing to build on member engagement and organizing–both in and out of bargaining–will ensure we can keep making UW a better place to work. Recognizing that fees continue to be an important issue, we are committed to continuing to organize across campus to lessen the impact that the cost of fees have on ASEs and all students. We are also committed to continuing to organize around an international student solidarity fund, additional improvements to healthcare, and individual development plans — but it will take members continuing to come together to get there! Organizing and improving our working conditions takes place year-round, not just during bargaining. Talk to your coworkers about becoming members, join a departmental organizing committee or the ASE organizing committee, or join a workgroup! Tentative Agreement Summary
You can find more details about each of these here and full text of all proposals here. Ratification Process & Open Discussion SessionsThe tentative agreement is not yet final contract language, and to be finalized, it must be ratified by a member-wide vote. If the ratification vote passes, we’ll have a new contract immediately; if not, we will go back into bargaining and will need to continue to mobilize and escalate. The ratification vote will be held online by the Elections Committee beginning this Friday (5/21) and will be open through 11:59pm on Friday (5/28). To help make sure members have all the information needed to make an informed vote, all members are encouraged to join open discussion sessions starting on Thursday. In addition, Bargaining Committee members and other organizers will provide short statements on their positions on the tentative agreement prior to the ratification vote — if you’ve been active in organizing and/or bargaining and would like to contribute, please email ase-bargaining-team@uaw4121.org. In Solidarity,
UAW 4121 ASE Bargaining Committee |
