Summary of 4/3/23 bargaining session

Yesterday (4/3) was our 6th bargaining session with WSU Admin. Any proposals mentioned in the summary below will be linked here, on the WSU-CASE website.

Overview of yesterday’s bargaining session (TL; DR):

• We presented counterproposals on Union Rights and Personnel Files
• We presented a new proposal on Training
• We discussed management’s Health & Safety counterproposal that we received this past Thursday
• WSU presented a new counterproposal on Discipline
• Kelley Westhoff, WSU’s Executive Director Budget, Planning, and Analysis, gave us a presentation on WSU’s funding situation

• We presented a counterproposal on Union Rights in which we pushed back hard on management’s attempts to create restrictions on union activity in the workplace, like making stewards ask permission from supervisors before talking to their coworkers!
• We presented a counterproposal on Personnel Files. Soon, we think we’ll arrive at final contract language that protects ASEs’ rights to know what’s in their personnel files and to make important additions when they feel that more information is needed about circumstances referenced in those files.
• We presented a new proposal on Training that proposes that training resources are provided and paid for by the University. Our aim for this proposal is to ensure that ASEs are provided enough training to do their jobs, while allowing ASEs to contribute to the understanding of what we need to know to complete our assistantship work well.
• Management also presented a new counterproposal on Dismissal. We continue to differ on issues of how much notification should be given for investigations and pre-disciplinary procedures and how much an ASE may rely on Union representation during the process.  However, it appears that we’re moving closer together in some areas related to administrative leave. We will prepare to counter this proposal during the coming week.
• In the afternoon, we had a presentation by Kelley Westhoff, Executive Director for Budget, Planning & Analysis for WSU. She detailed the funding sources & budgetary landscape of WSU. As expected, the presentation also focused on decreases in enrollment and budget cuts. We anticipate that admin will continue to cite this as we begin making proposals with economic impacts, such as our Wages proposal. We have been promised a copy of the powerpoint presentation and will include a link in a future email once we receive it.