Session 22: We’re in the endgame!

Our rally Monday was a huge success. We had at least 300 attendees and a number of inspiring speeches, including from Sabrina Owens ‘25, Tricia Diggins (IMSEUA), Heather Mattila (BISC chair), Vail Kohnert-Yount (Assistant Director of UAW Region 9A), and a few of our members. The supportive honks from passersby amplified our chanting. They could hear us from the Science Center and the Academic Quad! Thank you for coming out and bringing your energy.

We still have a long way to go, but our direct actions are working! During yesterday’s 22nd bargaining session, the College demonstrated serious bargaining movement by packaging some of their proposals together. When a package is presented, the opposing bargaining team has to either accept the whole package as is, or the package reverts back to individual proposals. The package that the College presented today included titles, appointments/reappointments, promotion, and evaluations. The bargaining team presented a counter package focused on job security, with the highlight being a just cause standard for denial of reappointment. Package bargaining signals we are in end-stage bargaining! We need to keep up the momentum to close this out.

After 22 sessions and over 75 hours of bargaining, some major sticking points remain. These key issues reflect the priorities that our members identified last year in our bargaining survey: compensation, protections against discrimination and harassment, protecting our workload, job security, academic freedom, clear evaluation criteria, job titles, and expanded access to benefits around dependent care and tuition. Our bargaining team will continue to fight for these critical issues. We are not bargaining to win our jobs back – we are bargaining to win the contract we deserve. The next few bargaining sessions will be critical. We will be bargaining on March 18 (during Spring Break) and again on March 25th. Come if you can and stay tuned!