We, the undersigned faculty and staff, wish to express our support of UAW 4121 in its effort to achieve a fair contract with UW Academic Students Employees.

We understand that UW is currently claiming that it has “no money” to address the fact that over 80% of ASEs are increasingly rent-burdened, forced to pay 30% or more of their earnings on housing alone, not even accounting for student fees. Many are forced to take second and third jobs simply to make ends meet, which can undermine timely progress to degrees. In response to the UW’s failure to adequately support its ASEs, members of UAW 4121 have voted overwhelmingly, and with the union’s highest-ever election turnout, to authorize a strike, which grants the bargaining committee the authority to call a strike if they believe circumstances justify doing so. We pledge our continued should ASEs go on strike and we urge the UW to respect all employees and to honor the union's demands for a fair, livable wage. We also write to urge the UW to respect all its employees and to honor the union’s demands for a fair, livable wage.

The skyrocketing cost of living in Seattle is a function of a booming economy, which produces increased state revenues. These can and should translate into higher levels of funding for UW. It is also the University Administration’s responsibility to manage its funds effectively, and so therefore unacceptable that UW employees – ASEs, faculty, or staff – should be losing ground economically as the region thrives. We are told that the university’s external vendors must be compensated at (rising) market rates. We believe that UW’s internal suppliers – the ASEs, faculty, and staff on whose creative, intellectual labor this university runs – also have a right to compensation commensurate with the rising cost of housing, healthcare, and other essentials.

Just as ASEs deserve inclusion in the booming economy of our region, they should be included in the work of the UW Race & Equity Initiative and other anti-oppression work central to the mission of UW. When key stakeholders are not included and top-down work is the only game in town, the divorce of power from knowledge often damages those this institution supposedly aims to serve. We therefore support ASEs in their demand for anti-discrimination (including anti-sexual harassment) peer trainings and structured collaboration between ASEs and departmental administrators to promote a climate of equity and inclusion.

All of these demands are consistent with the university’s stated commitments to social justice. We support ASEs’ efforts to improve their working conditions, and we urge the university to bargain in good faith with UAW 4121.

In solidarity,

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