“We’re treated like laughing stocks and overworked.” That’s what one of your bargaining team members had to say after the August 29 bargaining session, which left all members with a bad taste in their mouths.
Last week's sessions were disrespectful, to say the least. UW's lead negotiator rejected our proposals as outlandish while implying their 1% raise was fair.
A 1% pay increase for WFSE workers pales in the face of the salaries paid to management at UW, many of which are in the hundreds of thousands per year.
UW’s lead negotiator was unmoved when we brought up how much value our work brings to the University. For example, UW keeps 80% of income from blood draws at its medical facilities. That amounts to thousands of dollars a day. Their negotiation team dismissed this, ignoring how valuable we are.
UW management is treating our workers as if they are the laughingstock of this University. They are showing us that they do not value the workers who keep patients fed, who run valuable lab work in medical facilities, who keep campus safe, and who maintain the buildings and grounds that make UW look like a prestigious school.
Management doesn’t want to pay us. They don’t want to expand our leave accrual. They want to punish us for things workers outside of WFSE have done, insisting they want to “be consistent” with the way they treat workers across campus. It seems like the only “consistency” across campus is management treating workers poorly.
However, management is starting to feel the heat as our job actions ramp up and we get louder. UW’s lead negotiator kept bringing up our walkout action, making sure we knew the rules surrounding organizing. UW seems nervous!
We need to keep it up and remind the University that we are UW. Without us, the University can’t run. The medical centers, cafeterias, classrooms, grounds, and facilities across every campus would come to a halt. Don’t let them forget it.