To the members of the UAW Local 4121 Bargaining Team:
As you have communicated to union membership, negotiations between the University of Washington and UAW Local 4121, representing Academic Student Employees at UW, to secure a strong and fair contract for 2010-2013, have been challenging. Since bargaining began in early March, 2010, UW management have come to the table with nothing but takeaways for some of their most essential and lowest paid employees. According to UAW 4121's bargaining updates, UW's position has changed very little, if at all, over the six weeks of bargaining since. Less than two weeks remain before ASEs' current contract expires. UW management have made it clear that they have every intention of pushing through draconian working conditions for the people who do half the university's teaching and a large amount of its research. But they've also made it clear what they fear -- that we, whose work they so depend on, will go on strike.
Bargaining opened with a strong mandate from rank and file, with 90% of us voting in favor of authorizing the bargaining team to call a strike. Shortly after that vote, nearly 1,000 students participated in a one-day student strike on March 4, the National Day of Action to Defend Public Education. These students plan to support their TAs, graders, tutors, and other ASEs, as well as fight for their own demands, by committing to an even bigger strike starting on May 3 -- planned to begin the first Monday after UAW 4121 contract expires. Regardless of the state of bargaining, students will be picketing for small class sizes, low tuition, safe and fair conditions for all campus workers, and a strong contract for ASEs. This kind of solidarity with undergrads is exactly what we need right now. But in order to win, we need even more: solidarity with other workers. Many campus workers have clauses in their own contracts permitting them to NOT cross another union's picket line. Already two campus unions, SEIU 925, which represents classified staff, and WFSE 1488, which represents state workers including custodians, trades people, and others, have passed resolutions informing their membership of this right in the event that ASEs go on strike. Because of rank-and-file grad student workers' efforts, UAW 4121 also passed a resolution offering support to Teamsters Local 174 (garbage truck drivers) and asking for their support if ASE's strike. If UAW 4121 members join students in striking on May 3, we could have the power to shut campus down by stopping the vast majority of the work that keeps this university running.
This is the true expression of the power that workers have when we act in solidarity with each other, but building toward this takes time and effort. In particular, it takes reaching out to other unions beforehand so that they are prepared when they encounter our pickets. It also takes planning ahead of time for the when, where, how, and other logistical questions of our pickets. These preparations cannot be put off until the night before a strike begins. They must be done ahead of time, and typically are. A member of the executive board of Washington Federation of State Employees (WFSE) Local 1488 has already advised you to take these very steps, particularly to contact the King County Labor Council to ask for their advanced endorsement. To our knowledge, you have made no such preparations.
For a Democratic University is a group of graduate students fighting for our own welfare as workers and in solidarity with other workers and students on campus. As rank and file members of UAW 4121, we call on you, our elected representatives, to do what is in our best interest: begin preparations for a strike. We will not win a strong contract without one. We also will not win a strong contract if our strike is weak, poorly prepared for, or done without strong support from undergraduates and from other workers on campus. We call on you to reach out to other union leadership teams, including the King County Labor Council and the executive board of WFSE 1488, to ask for their support. We also call on you to begin planning the logistics of the strike in conjunction with other workers and students on campus. Indeed, rank and file UAW 4121 members, students, other campus workers, and community members are already planning a strike to begin May 3, and an official union strike will be strongest if it happens at the same time -- not if it is delayed until just before summer break and few students are left to protest a bad contract. We have formed a committee to plan the logistics of the day, and we call on you to coordinate with us. You are welcome to attend strike committee meetings or to discuss planning with a strike committee representative.
Contrary to what some have claimed, a strike does not lose its power once it starts. If the actual event of the strike itself was so powerless, what would UW management have to fear? A strike is most powerful when it is happening and when workers act in solidarity across sector and refuse to cross each others' picket lines. This is the type of strike that members of For a Democratic University and other campus and community members are building for. We hope that you will seize this opportunity to help us gain a strong and fair contract and build the cross-sector support needed to win the demands of undergrads, grads, international students, faculty, custodians, food service workers, trades people, and support staff alike.
In Solidarity,
For a Democratic University
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