June 7, 2023
We had a very busy bargaining day yesterday, Tuesday, June 6th:
TL;DR:
- We presented two counters on Respectful Work Environment and Discipline
- We received three counters from Admin: Accommodations, Management Rights, Appointment Letters, and one new proposal, No Strikes, No Lockouts.
- We quickly returned a counterproposal for Accommodations
- We asked clarifying questions about management’s Immigration Proposal counter & management’s Title IX Proposal that should allow us to move forward with counters soon.
Please read on for more details. As a reminder, you can review the full proposals that were discussed in the Bargaining Center (updated within 24 hours of each bargaining session).
We presented a Respectful Work Environment counterproposal that re-asserted our definition of Abusive Conduct rather than simply describing “unprofessional” behavior. In a previous session, Admin commented that their policy on workplace bullying (BPPM 50.31) already describes some of the behaviors in our original proposal, so we incorporated some of that language into our counter proposal for consistency. We also submitted a counter proposal on Discipline where it appears we’ve moved closer but are still coming to a common understanding of what actions may constitute discipline.
In the morning, we received a counterproposal from Admin on Accommodations and were able to quickly turn around a counterproposal in response. In this back and forth, we pushed back on their removal of protections from perceived victims of stalking, domestic violence, and sexual assault by demonstrating the significance of these protections by introducing Lauren’s Promise during bargaining. We made it clear that we are asking for small adjustments and that more permissive policies that expand protections could result in lives being saved.
In their Appointment Letters counterproposal, Admin accepted much of our original language regarding what information needs to be provided to an ASE at the time of an appointment offer. Many of their remaining concerns related to the timelines we originally proposed, which they stated are not sufficiently flexible to accommodate appointments that do not follow a traditional fall start. We believe our original proposal adequately addressed this concern, but will continue to discuss this with Admin.
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Admin proposed a No Strikes, No Lockouts article. Their proposal states that “the University shall not lock out any ASEs as a result of a labor dispute or grievance or disputes on personnel matters; nor shall the Union in any way authorize, assist, condone, participate in, or lend support to any work stoppage, work slowdown or any other curtailment of work in the bargaining unit”. This is a serious and impactful topic, that has the power to shape future negotiations. We will need to carefully consider how to respond to this article and encourage everyone to be a part of these conversations, which will continue at bargaining committee meetings (open to all ASEs) in the coming weeks – stay tuned!
Finally, we asked Admin about their reasoning for removing many sections from our initial Immigration Proposal. Over the next few weeks, we will continue to work on a counter proposal that seeks to address the concern of our unit. If you are interested in working on issues related to immigration and international student concerns in particular, please send an email to contact@wsucase.org or reply to this email.
Wages Townhall – 5pm on June 14!
In the next few weeks, we will be bringing a Wages proposal to the bargaining table. Ahead of this, we are hosting a Wages Town Hall next Wednesday night at 5PM on zoom.
ASEs who have been working on the Wages proposal will briefly present our initial research into wages, a potential proposal on wage increases and what we can learn from other campaigns that successfully fought for significant wage increases. Most of the time reserved for that night will be for questions, comments, and discussion on our desired wage increases. We want to hear from all ASEs on what they need to see reflected in their paychecks.
RSVP here and spread the word! Ensuring that this proposal is representative of the desires of ASEs, and your presence helps us demonstrate our strong demand. We hope to see you there!
Bargaining Continues!
Throughout the summer, we will continue to bargain for better employment standards for all TAs, RAs, GAs, tutors, graders, and other ASEs. Here are the bargaining dates for the remainder of summer:
Jun 21, July 12, July 20, August 2 (10-5), August 15 (10-5)
*Unless otherwise specified, these days run from 9AM to 5PM.
As always, all ASEs are welcome to participate in bargaining by RSVPing here. You are welcome to come for any amount of time and participate however you feel comfortable; stopping by just to listen in is great too! You can also join workgroups or the weekly bargaining committee meeting by RSVPing here.
Don’t see a way you’d like to get involved in bargaining & organizing? Have other questions? Email contact@wsucase.org, and someone will be in touch soon!
In Solidarity,
Acacia Patterson, Physics & Astronomy (Pullman)
Adam Bozman, Carson College of Business – Finance (Pullman)
Andre Diehl, Comparative Ethnic Studies (Pullman)
Arianna Gonzales, Psychology (Pullman)
Aurora Brinkman, Psychology (Pullman)
Chelsea Mitchell, School of the Environment (Puyallup Research and Extension Center)
Chia-Hui Chen, Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (Spokane)
Claudia Skinner, School of Languages, Cultures, and Race (Pullman)
Cody Lauritsen, College of Veterinary Medicine (Pullman)
Coty Jasper, Integrative Physiology & Neuroscience (Vancouver)
Dano Holt, School of the Environment (Pullman)
Evan Domsic, Crop and Soil Science (Mount Vernon NWREC)
Gavin Doyle, English (Pullman)
Hannah Cohen, Veterinary Clinical Sciences (Pullman)
Kartik Sreedhar, Physics & Astronomy (Pullman)
Kayla Spawton, Plant Pathology (Mount Vernon NWREC)
Kelsey King, School of Biological Sciences (Vancouver)
Miles Hopkins, School of the Environment (Pullman)
Miranda Zuniga-Kennedy, Clinical Psychology (Pullman)
Naseeha Cardwell, Chemical Engineering & Bioengineering (Pullman/Tri-Cities)
Natalie Yaw, Chemistry (Pullman)
Ninh Khuu, Plant Pathology (Prosser)
Peter Obi, Pharmaceutical Sciences (Spokane)
Raymond Bennett, Psychology (Pullman)
Rebecca Evans, Biology (Vancouver)
Shawn Domgaard, Communication (Pullman)
Tazin Rahman, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science (Pullman)
Tholen Justin Blasko, Animal Sciences (Pullman)
Victor Moore, History (Pullman)
Victoria Oyanna, Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (Spokane)
Whitney Shervey, Sociology (Pullman)
Yiran Guo, Mechanical and Materials Engineering (Pullman)