March 31, 2023
We want to take a moment at the start of this email to provide some clarity around terminology used during bargaining.
- All of our bargaining is being done in order to negotiate a contract with UW; this contract is called a Collective Bargaining Agreement, or CBA.
- Our contract/CBA will be composed of articles; each article pertains to an aspect of working at UW as a research scientist.
- In bargaining, we have been going back and forth with UW Admin on versions of these articles. We often refer to the versions of these articles that we exchange as proposals.
- While the contract won’t be in effect until it’s signed and ratified by RSEs, we can mark progress by coming to a tentative agreement, or a “TA”, on articles.
Hopefully this feels helpful, and if there are other parts of the bargaining process you’d like some clarity on, please let us know! And now back to the details…
Bargaining Update
This week, we met UW Admin at the bargaining table for our 21st and 22nd bargaining sessions. We have been exchanging a grouping of proposals that pertain to the day-to-day lives of RSEs and are getting close to reaching an agreement with Admin on this set of proposals. A major article in this grouping is Layoff, Rehire, Seniority. In this article, we are close to reaching an agreement in which RSE layoff notice would extend from current practice of 30 days to 45 days at minimum.
We have also been exchanging a grouping of proposals that pertain to issues of equity. While we are making some progress here, we still have some major areas of disagreement.
- Non-Discrimination and Sexual Harassment- You may remember from last week that UW struck language outlining an annual equity survey for RSEs. This week they pulled a 180 and made a proposal that the equity survey would be conducted for the next two academic years. However, they are still opposed to allowing RSEs to participate in the Empowering Prevention & Inclusive Communities (EPIC) program, which is an evidence-based, peer-to-peer program to prevent sexual harassment and promote a more inclusive workplace.
- International/Immigrant Scholar Rights and Support/Visa Sponsorship– UW made a proposal this week in which they outlined their “current practice” of not sponsoring visas for professional staff. Their proposal is 1) inaccurate (there are research scientists on university-sponsored visas) 2) discriminatory, in that actual current practice seems to be that the university occasionally provides this opportunity to some research scientists, but for whom this is an opportunity is unclear, 3) bad for science.
- PI Eligibility– We are close to reaching an agreement that would require every department to create a pathway for RSEs to be PIs
If you are wondering about the status of any of the economic articles–such as compensation, childcare, and housing–UW Admin is currently sitting on all of the economic articles in our contract.
As a reminder, you can view all exchanged proposals at our Bargaining Center.
We invite you to attend an upcoming bargaining session, and when appropriate, to share an example of how a proposal would directly impact your life and your research. Our next bargaining sessions are Wednesday, April 5th and Friday April 7th. Caucus starts at 8am. Please RSVP here. You can also see other upcoming April sessions at this same link.
April Mass Meeting
Please mark your calendars and sign up for our April Mass Meeting, Thursday April 13th at noon. We will cover detailed updates about bargaining, specifically what we have won so far, what we are still fighting for, and the actions that we all will be taking in April and May in order to win a fair contract.
Stay Informed
Stay up to date with our latest news and actions by following our social media accounts: Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, and also, reach out if you have any questions.
Additionally, if you’d like to keep up with what’s happening more broadly than just our Research Scientist unit, check out the UAW 4121 email updates. Also we are part of UAW Region 6, which represents over 100,000 people across 9 states.
In solidarity,
UWRU/UAW Bargaining Committee
Thaddeus Armstrong
Leila Blair
Nick Bolten
Jai Broome
Erin Carll
Morgan Crotta
Iván Cruz
Abby Gambrill
Jay Mas Gilvydis
Anya Kalata
Julia Kobelt
Katherine Lasdin
Ellen MacLachlan
Katie Osterhage
Deborah Nemens
Van Redila
Annelise Smith
Galen Stewart
Jacob Tietsort
Stacey Wedlake
Ryan Will
Tricia Wu