SEATTLE — It’s possible that thousands of students could walk off the job after the union for the University of Washington’s Academic Student Employees voted to authorize a strike.
Max Rodriguez is a UW student who was walking on the quad Monday morning at the main campus. He admits that a strike could pose a problem.
“I think it’s going to be very interesting to see what’s going to happen once students walk off the job,” he said.
Lujan Bazzano also admitted that the strike has been on the minds of some students.
“I know some of the people that are going to go on strike and I think they’re asking for a raise,” said Bazzano.
The ASE union is demanding fair pay, affordable heathcare, and protections for non-citizen members that are also employees. The union said more than half of the 6,000 members voted to authorize the strike. The union claims that its members do a large bulk of the research and teaching at UW that could stop if they are not on the job.
Mathieu Chabaoud was also at the quad Monday morning. Though he was working to set up an encampment to protest the Israel-Gaza war, he knew a great deal about the potential strike and its implications, since he’s worked with members of the union.
He says losing academic employees would have an impact.
“You’re not going to see grades posted, you’re not going to see exams graded — you’re going to see this university panic — quite frankly, the administration,” said Chabaoud.
Rodriguez echoed a similar sentiment.
“We’re still in the middle of the school year. Students obviously still need services,” he said.
A Monday statement from a UW spokesperson said, in part:
“Our intention is to reach an agreement. We have asked for bargaining dates in May and our expectation is to continue to bargain in good faith. The UW values the work of academic student employees, and our hope is that the ASEs will join us in these good-faith negotiations and avoid any negative impacts on UW students and their work.
“It’s important to note that we have reached tentative agreements on 30 of the 37 articles in the contract, so we are making good progress, despite some critical components that remain unresolved. Our hope is that we’ll continue to make progress at the bargaining table.”
The union and the school are scheduled to continue negotiations Monday. Whatever the outcome, students on campus had mixed reactions to the possibility of a strike.
Rodriguez said the impact could cause a more general response from the student body.
“There may be pushback from not only the unions, but students in general,” he said.
Chabaoud lauded the union for taking a stand.
“They have incredible bravery. I’ve talked to many of them. I’ve helped them out at their practice pickets, and this is something again that they’re willing to fight for. We only get wins when we organize,” Chabaoud said.
The rest of UW’s statement follows:
“Cost is the most prohibitive factor. As Provost Tricia Serio wrote on her blog recently, ‘There are real constraints on the sources of funding – tuition, state funding, grants, etc. – for academic student employees. Grants have limits on what can be paid and are time limited; state funding varies by year; and tuition increases are capped by state law to maintain the affordability of a UW degree for students whose tuition isn’t waived.’
“The ASEs’ most recent proposal includes a 47% wage increase in Year 1, 6% each two remaining years. They are also requesting 12-month appointments, which is an unnecessary change from current 9-month appointment. There is not as much activity on campuses in the summer, including fewer classes, and so there is simply no need for the same level of staffing in the summer as the rest of the year.
“Their request for student fee waivers is unfair to other students. Student fees are determined by students and imposed by students — and paid by all other students on campus. ASEs are students. The UW also doesn’t have the authority to waive the fees and our only option would be to pay them from other sources, including tuition dollars (which are two-thirds of our operating budget), which would ultimately mean that other students would be paying their own fees and also partly paying the ASEs’ fees.”