Summary of our first day of bargaining on 2/22!

On Wednesday, after months of delay from the administration, we finally had our first bargaining meeting with Labor Relations (LR). Your bargaining committee spent the day setting ground rules, presenting our initial bargaining demands, and hashing out grievance & boilerplate language that will set the framework for our first, strong contract. Read on for an update on the bargaining process.Updates will also be posted to the WSU CASE website after every meeting. 

The first item on the agenda was setting ground rules to ensure efficient, fair, good faith bargaining, by setting clear expectations around communication and conduct of meetings. One of our top priorities was, and remains, transparency and participation for all ASE’s throughout this process. However, the administration wants this bargaining to take place behind closed doors. Despite the administration’s confusion on the merits of participatory bargaining, we remain committed to keeping meetings open to all members of the bargaining unit and to sharing proposals with you. You can find them on our website here & can RSVP for bargaining sessions here.

Next, we presented our initial bargaining demands, which you helped craft with your feedback during the card drive and which a majority of ASEs have signed! These demands include improved compensation, healthcare and other benefits, protections for international students, health and safety, among many other long overdue terms we have identified. You can find the final IBDs here. The administration was largely silent on these points, and we expect resistance in the future as we make more specific proposals. Stay tuned!

In the afternoon, we presented proposals on the following six topics:

Overall this was a great first bargaining meeting with the WSU administration. Both teams are committed to bargaining and reaching a joint agreement. We are scheduled to reconvene on March 6th. Between now and then, there are two big ways that you can get involved.  First, is by taking the Bargaining Survey to make sure your priorities are being heard.  Second, is by RVSPing to attend a bargaining session.  In doing so, you can help us make sure that this is a transparent and participatory bargaining process. 

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)