Today, Western Academic Workers United sat down at the bargaining table with WWU for the first time ever as one unit, ESEs and OSEs, recognized under Washington state law. Student workers from across campus and disciplines came together to start the process of advocating for our 2027 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
So what happened in the room today?
WAWU put together a package of potential Tentative Agreements. These are articles from the current CBA, that the bargaining committee and student workers felt were worthy of maintaining in our next contract! Now the ball is in WWU’s court to decide if they agree that we deserve articles like Workload Protections, and University Provided PPE… Articles we worked hard to win in our first contract in 2024.
What else?
WWU proposed reducing layoff protections for grant or work study funded positions in the instance that they lose access to funding… Making these WWU student workers ineligible for layoff protections in the form of layoff notices, under Article 16 of our CBA. Bargaining committee members respectfully declined subjecting our coworkers to this type of reduction in coverage, and we are prepared to fight this off.
WWU proposed changes to three other articles, and we countered, collaborating with them through good faith bargaining practices. Our bargaining committee left the room today ready for more!
Bargaining is always open to student workers, come out and see the process unfold for round two, on Monday April 5th between 9:30AM-2:30PM!
Our message to WWU?
Western works because we do.