SEATTLE—As an Oct. 1 state budget deadline looms, workers are keeping the pressure on University of Washington administrators to negotiate a fair contract.
On the afternoon of Tuesday, Sept. 10, Washington Federation of State Employees members brought over 250 members and supporters to a walkout in front of the University of Washington’s President’s office before entering to present their demand for fair negotiations.
WFSE members were supported by other unions representing University of Washington staff, educators, and other local labor, as well as national labor leaders.
University workers say their needs are not being taken seriously by the university, which is offering 2% and 1% pay raises per year for their two-year contract. Many of the employees say they’re not able to afford Seattle’s high costs of housing, food, and other necessities.
At the rally, union members spoke about the disconnect between the university planning for future expansions without accounting for the needs of the workers who make these institutions function.
Darron Lewis, a WFSE member and custodian, said the staff is “never consulted or accounted for as the university continues to grow and expand.” Workloads increase without any input from the people who perform the labor.
According to other staff, due to workforce shortages, the university often contracts out public jobs to the private sector, typically going with non-union contractors, sometimes without even notifying the unions and staff.
“I’m tired of this administration making plans, doing things, without our say so,” Lewis said.
It is also taken for granted, he said, that the staff are the first line of defense against new problems like the COVID virus.
They are the ones who keep the campus clean, safe, and functioning, and “it’s time the university starts recognizing that,” Lewis said.
The union has been bargaining since June and already reduced their demands to 17.5% per year for the two-year contract, with the possibility of going lower. University administrators, however, have refused to raise a counter proposal, and workers say it’s on the university now to come back with a reasonable offer.
They also note that almost half of workers were left out of job-specific raises last time around, so some workers have only received the bare minimum increases in their wages over the last contract and need to be brought up to speed with the current economy.
During the summer, members tried to raise awareness of their negotiations during the President’s Circle Garden Party by giving out information about UW’s food banks for their staff while donors gathered to hear university President Ana Mari Cauce pitch for more university funding. Cauce’s salary is nearly $1 million.
Shareatha Escobar of SEIU 925 said at the rally that the university’s refusal to offer a fair bargain was pushing them backwards and that they would all continue to fight for fair contracts.
“The University of Washington is not playing fair,” Escobar told the crowd. “We are absolutely not settling for a one percent increase.”
Local and national labor leaders present included April Sims, president of the Washington State Labor Council, Joe Maloney, president of the Idaho AFL-CIO, and Liz Schuler, president of the AFL-CIO.
Schuler, who took the top position of the over 12-million-member strong AFL-CIO in 2021, told the workers that the needs they are raising in their negotiations are the same concerns workers throughout the U.S. face.
“Sadly, these stories are all too familiar,” Schuler said. “It’s a pattern of corporate greed.”
She said it is a result of employers not recognizing who makes their institutions function and urged workers to stand in solidarity with each other.
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