Huge news from the bargaining table this week! On Tuesday afternoon, we Tentatively Agreed to two absolutely crucial articles: 1) Training and 2) Workspace and Materials.
In our Training article, we won the right to be trained in the duties necessary for our jobs and get paid for every hour of that training. For those of us who’ve had dozens of hours of unpaid training, this is amazing news.
In our Workspace and Materials article, we won this language: “ESE’s shall have access to workspaces, materials, services and equipment as needed and appropriate to perform duties of the job as outlined in the job description.” That means you never have to pay a single dollar out of pocket for materials related to your job.
We also proposed a bunch of new articles:
- Vacation, which proposes vacation time for those of us who work through breaks.
- Intellectual Property, which proposes a system to protect the intellectual property we create at work.
- Dependent Care, which proposes increased access and funding (up to $1350) for ESEs with dependents.
- Fair Scheduling, which proposes that hourly ESEs should always get our schedules a week in advance — otherwise we should be able to decline the extra hours or get paid overtime. It also says we should still get paid if our hours get cut less than a week in advance.
- Discipline or Dismissal, which protects us from unjust discipline and firings.
Admin presented two counterproposals, neither of them very good:
- Leaves: they slashed a lot of our language, said we should use sick time for bereavement leaves, and suggested that hourly ESEs like tutors and library assistants should accrue paid sick time at half the rate of stipended ESEs like grad TAs.
- Health and Safety: they slashed a lot of our language around the right to work in a safe environment. Rather than a right, they claimed that the safety of our working environments is a “shared responsibility” between us and management. Beyond that, they would prefer to do the bare minimum and follow OSHA requirements.
You can read all of these proposals in our bargaining hub, which is now up to date!!
And don’t forget we want to pack the room for next week’s bargaining session, where we’re proposing articles on Anti-Discrimination and Harassment, ADEI Training, Accommodations, and Accessibility. Don’t miss Equity Day! It’s especially important to come show your support for the courageous student employees testifying about these issues.
See you there,
Valerie Campbell, Financial Aid Peer Advisor
Lexy Aydelotte, History TA
Mara Sullivan, Library Assistant
David Cummins, Chemistry TA
Chris Reid, English TA
Gabe Wong, AS Senate President & Peer Advisor