Two big pieces of news!
First, we have 14 OPEN SPOTS on our Bargaining Committee. The BC voted to expand itself this week, and we’re so excited to welcome tons of new people into the heart of the bargaining process. If you care about our contract and want to play an active role in negotiating it, you should accept your nomination here. The deadline is 11:59pm on Monday, December 11th.
There are also two upcoming information sessions for those of you who might want to run — one on Monday, December 4th at 5pm in Miller Hall 156, and another on Thursday, December 7th at 4pm in the Interdisciplinary Science Building 244. Current Bargaining Committee members will be there to answer questions and get you up to speed!
The second big piece of news is that yesterday we had our fourth session of bargaining with WWU admin. We proposed articles on Travel, Leave, Holidays, Professional Development, Workload, and Health and Safety. Educational Student Employees from across campus testified about their experiences with these issues.
We heard from an ESE who had a boulder fall on his student while he was leading a trip in the wilderness — why did he have to fight to receive Wilderness First Aid training when it was clearly essential to his job? We heard from Research Assistants who’ve been ghosted by their advisors for months at a time and then retaliated against for pointing out how overworked they are — why don’t we have basic standards in place for professional development and mentorship? And we heard from just a few of the hundreds of ESEs who work overtime every single week — why don’t we get paid for every hour we work?
Admin’s answers to these questions were vague, and their skepticism was surprising after so much powerful testimony. We haven’t yet seen their counterproposals on these issues, but we hope they respond quickly and respect the substance of what we’ve proposed.
As far as what went across the table, here’s the full list:
WAWU Counters
- Workspace and Materials #3
WAWU Proposals
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- Travel
- Leave
- Holidays
- Professional Development
- Workload
- Health and Safety
Admin counterproposals
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- Personnel Files
- Union rights
- Workspace and Materials #4
You can read the full texts soon in our bargaining hub! Sorry for the delay posting last week’s articles — we’ve had some technical issues. But they should all be up in the bargaining hub next week, and please feel free to reach out if you want to read any of them before then.
Solidarity from your elected bargaining committee!
Valerie Campbell, Financial Aid Peer Advisor
Lexy Aydelotte, History TA
Mara Sullivan, Library Assistant
Kenneth McKinney, Physics Faculty Assistant
Chris Reid, English TA
Gabe Wong, AS Senate President & Peer Advisor