TLDR: Add your name to our petition and add your voice to our rally to show Western that we are committed to finding a solution where our reality doesn’t mean student workers have to drop out of school.
As winter quarter is winding down, bargaining negotiations for our first labor contract as Western Academic Workers United (WAWU) are heating up!
This is the last week to sign onto our petition demanding a fully funded Western before our Expand the Pie rally. Right now, hundreds of unionized workers of Western (students, staff, and faculty) have committed to be in Red Square at noon on Thursday, 3/14. Make your way there and hear from each of our campus’ unions about the effects of an underfunded Western.
For us Educational Student Employees, this is definitely coming up at the bargaining table. Today, we brought our wages counter proposal to negotiations which maintained competitive wages for grads and a living wage for undergrads. Admin continued to push back and suggested that our jobs are not real work but a service they provide to us! They think we should be grateful to get the minimum wage! This is outrageous! We do critical work to ensure Western can actually provide a quality education for the entire student body!
Admin also indicated that our differences are starting to look irreconcilable, but that’s not true! We tentatively agreed to 4 articles today including –
- Fair Scheduling: no more last minute schedules! If we ratify the contract our supervisors will need to give us at least 7 days notice before unilaterally changing our schedule.
- Personnel files: ensuring we are able to access our employment records maintained by the university.
- Union VCAP: which will allow us to voluntarily authorize payroll deductions that we can use to support political campaigns and candidates like the recent minimum wage increase and upcoming election!
- Job Postings: creating a fairer application process such as transparency with regards to wages and benefits and notifications about the status of your application
If you’re intrigued and want more details about bargaining or the rally, come to our March Monthly Membership Meeting tomorrow (Tuesday, 3/12). There will be free tacos from Mi Rancho, but only if you RSVP! If you’re intrigued and want to join the bargaining team, accept your nomination in our just opened vacancy election by Sunday, March 17th. There are 5 open positions!
For our union makes us strong,
Your elected bargaining committee
Ally Wehrle, Graduate TA
Ben Workman Smith, Graduate TA
David Cummins, Graduate RA/TA
Erin Grimes, Graduate TA
Erin Magarro, Library Tutor/Ethnic Student Center
Ev Coit, Graduate TA
Gabe Wong, Associated Students Peer Advisor
Jaime Blais, Graduate RA/TA
Josh Kinney, Business Management Faculty Assistant
Jude Ziliak, Academic Advising and Student Achievement Center Peer Advisor
Lexy Aydelotte, Graduate TA
Lydia Henderson, Graduate TA
Mickey Jolliff, Graduate RA/TA
Mason Nicholas, Student Technology Center Computer Assistant
Theo Hytopoulos, Computer Science Faculty Assistant
Valerie Campbell, Financial Aid Peer Advisor