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Today was the first day of Postdoc-specific negotiations, where Postdocs passed our initial articles on several core issues that touch on our Initial Bargaining Demands — fair and just compensation, protections and support for international Postdocs, equal benefits regardless of funding source, and a safe, equitable, and accessible workplace.
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The day started with Admin passing counter-proposals on our jointly bargained issues. Admin gave a counter-proposal on non-discrimination and harassment that now technically includes language around categories like ethnic origin, political affiliation, and medical condition. However, Admin continues to refuse to protect these characteristics from discrimination and harassment, proposing instead to protect them from “adverse and inequitable treatment.” When asked about their continued reluctance to add caste as a protected characteristic, and why they’re refusing to align with Seattle legal protections on this basis, Admin said, “Laws that apply to City of Seattle employees do not apply to UW employees.” Seattle would disagree. Afterwards, Postdocs passed the majority of our initial articles, derived from bargaining survey responses and hundreds of individual conversations with hundreds of Postdocs. Details are laid out below: |
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Check out our recap video to see an explanation of our major proposals! We also proposed that several articles remain unchanged from the Current Contract Language. All articles proposed so far can be found in our public tracker. In total, these comprise historicprotections for international workers in a time when they are desperately needed, a compensation proposal that actually addresses the skyrocketing cost of living in Seattle and the highly skilled labor that Postdocs do at UW, and the massive inequities faced by Postdocs on fellowships in terms of benefits, financial compensation, and access to paid leave. UW Administration won’t accept these proposals without a fight. UAW members have already seen Admin triple down on rollbacks to basic non-discrimination protections, and last week, they offered our research staff siblings a 1% raise over three years. |
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UAW members rallied last week to tell UW Admin that equity is not optional; next week, Postdocs, Research Staff, and ASEs will be taking it directly to the Board of Regents to tell them that UW Admin’s proposals are unacceptable, and we won’t accept anything less than protections and compensation that meet the reality of the moment we’re living in. Show up and bring your coworkers to Anthony’s Forum in Dempsey Hall at 2 pm next Wednesday, July 8th – UW Admin will only listen if Postdocs show up in numbers to tell those in power what’s important to us and for University of Washington.
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In Solidarity, Winston Dredge Mateo Lopez Espejo Cassandra Henderson Haruki Hirasawa Jake Sacks Gourav Khullar Ryan Friedman |