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UAW Announces Huge Majority in University of Washington Organizing Drive

15 March 2000

UAW Announces Huge Majority in University of Washington Organizing Drive

    SEATTLE, March 15 The Graduate Student Employee Action
Coalition/UAW announced today that 80 percent of the University of
Washington's 1,650 teaching assistants, readers, and tutors have signed Union
cards, selecting GSEAC/UAW to represent them in collective bargaining.  The
Union filed these cards today at the state's Public Employment Relations
Commission.
    The Union conducted an organizing drive during the winter quarter at the
University of Washington.  With today's announcement, GSEAC/UAW called on
University President Richard McCormick to commence bargaining without delay.
"We expect that the University administration will respect our choice, and
negotiate with our Union over wages, benefits, and working conditions," said
GSEAC/UAW activist Christopher Hibbeln, a teaching assistant in the Psychology
Department.
    "At the University of Washington, just as at universities across the
country, teaching assistants, readers, and tutors shoulder a great deal of the
teaching load," noted history teaching assistant and GSEAC/UAW activist
Roberta Gold.  "We are dedicated to our work.  All we ask is that, like
thousands of other academic student employees nationwide, we enjoy union
representation."
    "The UAW is proud that the University of Washington's academic student
employees are standing up for fairness in their workplace -- and standing up
for excellence in education," said UAW Vice President Elizabeth Bunn, who
directs the union's Technical, Office and Professional Department.  "We look
forward to working with the university administration to build a constructive
relationship that benefits our members, University of Washington students, and
the entire University of Washington community."
    The UAW represents academic student employees at the University of
California, and the University of Massachusetts, and has filed to represent
academic student employees at New York University.