February 3, 2024
Congratulations on ratifying our historic first contract, which covers groundbreaking wins for graduate and undergraduate Teaching Assistants, Research Assistants, Staff Assistants, Veterinary Assistants, and Project Assistants! Now it’s time to take the next step and define our identity as a local union.
There are essentially two choices:
- We can charter our own UAW local,
- OR we can join UAW local 4121 (which represents three bargaining units: UW ASEs, Postdocs, and RSEs [Research Scientists & Engineers]) as an additional ASE bargaining unit.
Your fellow WSU-CASE organizers are holding a membership meeting this Tuesday, February 6th at 6pm over Zoom (click to RSVP) to learn about the choices we have before us.
Over multiple discussions, our bargaining and organizing committees unanimously recommend choosing option 1: to form our own amalgamated local of the UAW international union. This option will afford us the most autonomy, as we will have our own executive board to oversee union activities at WSU, and will allow us to make decisions that suit our unique situations as ASEs working at a land-grant university. An amalgamated local provides us with the ability to incorporate additional units, as new organizing continues at WSU (looking at you, WSU-PDU). UAW local 4121 has played a vital role in the formation of our union until this point, and will remain a sister local within the greater UAW international union. We will continue to learn from, work with and stand in solidarity with ASEs across the state, the coast, and the country.
We hope to see you all at the membership meeting Tuesday, February 6th at 6pm over Zoom (click to RSVP) to learn more about next steps for our union.
Until then, please continue to read our new contract, ask questions, and stay involved.
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)
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)