2026 Bargaining Committee Candidates

Alejandro Garcia (He/him)

This is my third year being involved with our union and my second year actively organizing. I attended some regional classes over the summer that showed me some of the possibilities for the scope of our contract. I learned about this grad school union in Northern California that had secured articles which prevented undue cooperation with ICE. Frankly all cooperation with them is undue but I’d at least like to test how far we can set their limits.

Colleen Ryan (She/Her)

I’m a senior at Western studying Socioecology through Fairhaven. I’ve been involved with WAWU since at least the fall of 2023, since the early days of the OSE campaign, and I am so excited and proud at how far we’ve come. Working alongside peers as an OSE Gallery Attendant through the AS, I’ve seen how student workers operate crucial functions of this university. I strongly believe that unions have an unmatched power to change our working conditions and to act as a lever of power in the wider context beyond the workplace. I believe in the power we have when we organize ourselves and stand together. In the experience I bring to this work, I’ve met with admin, spoken at Board of Trustees meetings, and lobbied for our bill in Olympia. I was a part of the team of OSEs that negotiated pay parity for OSEs in the summer of 2024. I bring strong analytical, writing, and speaking skills, skills I’ve continued to build in my organizing work. I would be proud to work to connect the needs and demands of members to the process of bargaining, and to fight for a good contract that finally represents ALL student workers at this university. Let’s do this!

Grace Rodriguez (She/They)

Hello friends! My name is Grace (she/they); I’m a junior in the ENVS department and work as a dance instructor at the center of student life: Wade King Recreation Center. I’m so excited to be fighting for the first unionization of all workplaces on campus that include Operational Student Employee positions. While we face such a deep divide of values across the country, the act of co-creating a contract—one that is representative of ALL of us—is truly the work of resistance. Like many of you, a mixture of feelings have been surfacing more intensely in viewing the increased hostile and illegal kidnappings, deportations, and separation of immigrant families. Without proper discipline at the federal level, these actions can feel above our ability to change at a community level. It is within this space, created by us and for us, that we aim to keep each other safe and keep these conversations of interconnected struggles at our center—and fight for what we need! This movement has already been sustained by many hands and I’m grateful to be working with people who make the process even more meaningful 🙂

Haley Meerdink

My name is Haley Meerdink and I am in my second year at Western. This is my first year as a Residential Advisor in Alma Clark Glass Hall and the first union I have been able to be a part of. I am a sociology major and english and political science minor. I am passionate about politics as a tool to help people and strongly believe that workers unions do just that. 

My favorite part of my job as an RA is building relationships with my residents and providing them with help and resources whenever I can. I believe that student staff members deserve the same treatment and that our union should be working to get us those resources. 

Residential Advisors, Apartment Advisors, and Inclusion Assistants deserve a spot at the bargaining table and I would be so grateful to serve as that representative. ResLife has shaped my college experience dramatically. As a freshman I was a board member of ACG-Ks Residential Programming Board and helped my team to win hall of the year. This is where I made and deepened some of my closest friendships and showed me how wonderful living in community can be. I want everyone to be able to have an experience as good as mine.

ResLife student staff have unique needs because our housing and meal plans are tied to our jobs. Many of my coworkers would not be able to afford Western without this job. Protections from our union are crucial to keep us fed, housed, and continuing our education.

As a member of the bargaining committee I would love to be someone my coworkers felt comfortable sharing grievances and issues with. Forming a community between student staff allows for advocacy for our needs and I would love to be a representative for my coworkers and our needs.

I would be honored to serve on the bargaining committee as a representation for all our operational student employees and fight for our interests to be met. 

Jase KAEBERLEIN (HE/HIM)

Hello! My name is Jase Kaeberlein (He/Him). I’m a sophomore studying Electrical Engineering, I work as a Stage Technician within the College of Fine and Performing Arts and as an Event Tech for the Viking Union. I’ve had the pleasure of serving within WAWU’s Advocacy & Contract Enforcement committee, and have been acting chair of the committee since December. I have first-hand experience enforcing our current contract and the OSE Terms & Conditions, and I hope to use that knowledge to help bargain for stronger workplace protections for all student employees on campus!

Sophia Maynard

I have been a Western student employee since the moment I stepped onto campus in the fall of 2023. Like so many of my fellow workers, I rely on student employment as an opportunity to pay my bills, put food on my table, and continue my education with a sense of security. In my first year, I learned that stability is far from guaranteed for OSEs when we lack basic protections. When the Engagement Center was eliminated without 30 days’ notice, it left my coworkers and me scrambling for work after being kept in the dark. Suddenly, all those benefits of being a student worker were shaky and uncertain. This experience showed me exactly how vulnerable OSEs are when decisions surrounding our employment are made without accountability and rely solely on the benevolence of our employer. Since then, I rolled up my sleeves and got to work advocating for OSE bargaining whenever I can. I lobbied for the OSE collective bargaining bill last year, went on strike and picketed last spring, and this year, in my role as VP of Governmental Affairs, I mobilized 45 students to advocate for SHB 1570 on Lobby Day. I’m running because I believe deeply in the power of collective action and because no student employee should ever experience what my coworkers and I went through. I want a contract where OSEs have irrefutable job security, equity with ESEs, and a solid foundation for everything we won last spring. I know that whether you’re in the room with legislators or in the room with administration, we are stronger when we stand together. I will fight for OSEs at the bargaining table with the same energy, determination, and dedication that I bring to my advocacy for all students. Our work matters, our voices matter, and so will those of the students who come after us. Let’s leave the table with a legacy of protection they can trust.