September 22, 2023
RSVP NOW for the September 27 Day of Action! We will be hosting rallies on the Pullman & Vancouver campuses; a caravan from Spokane will be joining the Pullman rally; and there will be socials on the Tri-Cities, Prosser, Puyallup, Mt. Vernon and Wenatchee campuses! It’s time to put the pressure on admin & make them understand that ASEs will not accept anything less than a contract that reflects our dignity and value as workers.
Here’s the TL;DR on what happened in Tuesday’s bargaining session:
- Our ASE team presented counterproposals on Professional Development & Career Counseling, Summer Session, Workload, Union Rights
- Admin passed counterproposals on Immigration, Union Rights, Workload, and Housing
- Admin passed an economic package containing offers on Wages, Fees & Tuition Waivers, Healthcare, Child & Dependent Care, Leaves, Shared Leave, Holidays, Vacation, and Housing
To find more details about proposals discussed at bargaining, read on below. As a reminder, you can review all of the full proposals that were presented in the Bargaining Center & RSVP to attend upcoming bargaining sessions (Oct 3 and Oct 31) here.
On Tuesday, we started bargaining less than 24 hours after we filed and served WSU Admin with an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charge alleging they have engaged in bad faith bargaining on healthcare (read more here). At the end of the day, management presented us with a revised economic package. Not only did their wages proposal come nowhere near paying ASEs a living wage, but they also continue to propose delaying bargaining healthcare benefits until November due to effects of their own (illegal) unilateral changes. Moreover, they are still offering $0 in childcare subsidies for ASEs. Although we saw some incremental movement in WSU’s Wages proposal in the form of an additional 0.5% across the board increase and small location-based adjustments,the wages and benefits they proposed in this package are still significantly below what is needed for ASEs to keep up with the cost of living and have a dignified life. We are worth more and deserve more than what Admin are proposing – make that clear to Admin by coming out to your campus action on September 27! RSVP here!
Our team also turned around counters on Workload, Professional Development, Summer Session, and Union Rights. Our Workload proposal would ensure that both salaried and hourly ASEs have clear hours expectations and matches the workload expected for our unionized ASE colleagues at other universities (namely those in the UC system and at UW). Management has proposed a higher workload maximum and less definitive standards for determining how excess workload is handled. Our proposal on Professional Development includes access to constructive on-the-job mentorship, and stipulates that mentors have access to training resources. Admin have been resistant to this language, claiming that we have “a shared goal that we improve mentorship”, but also that they “have significant doubts about [their] ability to manage mentorship.” In our Summer Session article, we are proposing that ASEs working during the summer get equal pay and equal protections as they would for the same positions in the Fall and Spring. Currently Admin is seeking language that would give them flexibility to pay less.
Admin returned counter proposals on Leaves, Housing, and Immigration, where we are still far apart on some key issues. Admin continues to reject any proposals for long-term leave for ASEs, remains uninterested in addressing the housing crisis facing ASEs, and continues to refuse to even guarantee already-existing resources for international and immigrant ASEs such as legal workshops (currently hosted by Undocumented Initiatives).
We have made some real progress through our collective power, but Admin is not moving quickly enough to offer us the fair contract we need. It’s time to show that we’re not backing down. RSVP for the Rally! Let’s make this the biggest show of collective strength this university has ever seen!
In Solidarity,
WSU-CASE Bargaining Committee:
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)