December 23, 2022
UW is breaking labor law.
Back in November, we learned that UW had begun the process of converting RSEs from overtime exempt (non-hours tracking) to overtime eligible (hours-tracking) positions without providing notice to the Union. These reclassifications are in response to a state law effective in the new year that requires overtime exempt employees be paid a minimum salary of $65,484. Upon learning UW was unilaterally making these changes, we issued a demand to bargain and asserted that UW should not make these changes without bargaining.
In response to this demand, UW first asserted that it did not have any bargaining obligation regarding these changes, then scrambled and scheduled three additional bargaining sessions with us over the past 1.5 weeks. While bargaining, UW has failed to provide us with complete information about how overtime and hours tracking would work for RSEs, and when they have provided information about how the system currently works, it’s largely to say those policies don’t exist.
Despite this, we have participated in each of these bargaining sessions and we have proposed that until we have a collective bargaining agreement in place, the salaries of all affected employees would be raised to the above–mentioned threshold. UW has countered each time asking us to agree that they can unilaterally convert employees and then bargain after they’ve made these changes. As of yesterday, UW declared “impasse” on the topic and announced that it would unilaterally implement their decision to convert currently overtime-exempt RSEs to hourly on December 26th. We pointed out that this will leave hundreds of RSEs unsure how this change will affect their job, which hours to report, which hours are compensable, and the appropriate process for getting overtime work preapproved if such approval is required, even as they are supposed to begin tracking hours on the 26th. We also communicated that we have not reached an impasse, especially since we have yet to receive much of the relevant information that would inform our ability to offer nuanced counter proposals that are appropriate for bargaining unit members.
Filing a charge
Given this, we will be filing an Unfair Labor Practice charge, asserting that the University administration has violated the law by failing to bargain this decision and its impacts on affected Research Scientists in good faith and interfering with Research Scientist rights. The Public Employment Relations Commission will then make a determination about whether to sustain our charge and whether the University violated their obligation. We will keep you apprised as this process unfolds.
What’s ahead
Reclassification will force hundreds of us to begin tracking hours and require us to acquire advance overtime approvals or face corrective action. For many of us, these policies are either impossible, make little sense for our roles, or, worse, are actively harmful to our work. This will place many of us in a position where we must decide between getting paid for our work or allowing our work to suffer, risking significant career and performance impacts.
The surprise changes that so many of us will be facing in the coming weeks are a slap in the face. The administration has known about the upcoming changes to state law for years, so it is clear that the last-minute reclassifications (about which they did not even inform our union – we had to discover this on our own) have been designed to suit the purposes of management to cut labor costs and undercut our union, not benefit researchers. This has been exacerbated by the University’s delays in starting bargaining earlier this year due to their baseless challenges to inclusion of hundreds of RSEs in the bargaining unit.
Our strength and leverage at the bargaining table comes from our numbers and our unity. The university cannot function without us and we deserve a fair contract. Please join us the first week of January to build out our escalation.
We wish you all a joyous and restful holiday season and look forward to returning in January re-energized and ready for action!
And as always, in case you aren’t already a follower, a quick plug for our social media accounts; they are an easy way to stay in the loop: Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, and also, reach out if you have any questions.
In solidarity,
UWRU/UAW Bargaining Committee
Thaddeus Armstrong
Leila Blair
Nick Bolten
Jai Broome
Erin Carll
Shelly Carpenter
Bonnie Chang
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
Kambiz Tavabi
Jacob Tietsort
Stacey Wedlake
Ryan Will
Tricia Wu
Joshua Yee