4,000 UW student employees to strike

Calley Hair | Washington State University

More than 4,000 student employees at University of Washington are set to strike for better wages and conditions following a 90% majority vote, the union UAW 4121 announced yesterday.

The strike primarily includes graduate students who teach undergraduate classes, which will leave a large portion of UW classes without an instructor.

“Such a result was not unexpected,” says Norm Arkans, the associate vice president of UW.

The strike vote comes on the heels of a protest at a Board of Regents meeting earlier this month. The protest was led by a coalition of 21 groups within the college — including UAW 4121— titled Reclaim UW. Protesters sought higher wages, better working conditions, a more diverse faculty and a tuition freeze for undergraduate and graduate students.

While the university is already working to reconcile its policy with some of these demands, others may be out of reach, Arkans says.

“It was a pretty full cornucopia of demands,” Arkans says. “I don’t know where the conversation will go from here.”

Yesterday’s vote results give UAW 4121 the authority to call for a strike if it is unable to negotiate a new contract before the current one expires on April 30.

Last week, the graduate and undergraduate deans of UW delivered a letter to the union informing its members that their contract prohibits work stoppages and that a strike would be illegal under Washington state law. The union called the letter a form of intimidation and issued a response, clarifying that strikes by public employees are a grey area under state law — they’re neither guaranteed nor prohibited.

Arkans says his greatest concern is the impact of 4,000 vacant academic employee positions on UW’s undergraduates.

“We would of course make every effort to minimize the impact on undergraduates, that’s our top concern,” Arkans says.

Mackenzie Barton-Rowledge, a member of Reclaim UW, says that while the group has no centralized leadership, the overall goals of their varied requests are rooted in the same principle.

“Our demands center people above bureaucracy, basic needs above impotent formal complaint structures, and a more equitable distribution of wealth as a fundamental tenant in a healthy society,” says Barton-Rowledge.

On April 8, nearly 100 members of Reclaim UW interrupted a Board of Regents dinner with chants of “UW, you can't hide! We can see your greedy side!” and “Education is a right! Not just for the rich and white!” Police and regents tried repeatedly to regain control over the meeting, but were shouted down. After about 20 minutes, the board relocated to a different room.

Before leaving, the board heard the list of demands from Reclaim UW alongside personal stories from the protesters.

“The passion we bring to the table is born of deeply personal experience and of empathy for one another, and those things will not flare out in a few weeks or months,” Barton-Rowledge says.

Reclaim UW submitted a letter to the Board of Regents spelling out its short-term and long-term demands, including:





Freeze or reduce the cost of tuition/fees, as well as rent at Housing and Food Service facilities, for all UW undergraduate and graduate students

Pay all campus workers at least $15 per hour

Provide affordable and accessible childcare for all university staff, faculty, and students

Maintain or increase full-time levels for UW workers paid less than $100,000 annually and restore all custodial staff cut in 2008

Waive tuition payment requirements for all academically-mandated internships

Establish a Racial Equity Fund to allocate a pool of money to provide services of specific interest to minority communities

Provide more internet-accessible budget transparency

Expand the direct power of students and non-administrative staff

“We decided last March to keep our housing prices the same. We’ve also taken the initial step… to increase all our student workers up to $11,” Arkans says.

Similar strikes at universities around the country have produced varied results. When graduate students at University of Oregon picketed for higher wages and better health benefits last December, they earned a 9% wage increase, but their health benefits remained tightly restricted. The strike also had a negative impact on undergraduate final exams. When 700 custodial employees at Boston University threatened a strike in October, they were able to negotiate a new contract with a 10% percent raise.

In a press release, the union made it clear that a short-term battle would be well worth the inconvenience in order to implement lasting change.

“The message from our members is clear: the cost of living in Seattle is rising sharply, and we cannot afford additional fees or loss of benefits in the salaries we make today,” said Bargaining Committee member Robin Gold in the release. “And we are prepared to act together and do what it takes to secure a contract that ASEs (Academic Student Employees) can afford to live on.”



Calley Hair is a student at Washington State University and a spring 2015 USA TODAY Collegiate Correspondent.

This story originally appeared on the USA TODAY College blog, a news source produced for college students by student journalists. The blog closed in September of 2017.