Academic Worker Militancy — The UW Post Doc Strike
University of Washington employees in the Seattle area are on a roll! After 15 months of bargaining Librarians, UW Press and other Professional Staff won a contract with Service Employees International Union. It took a one-day warning strike and the threat of an indefinite strike to win their contract. Now Post Doc fellows and scholars and Research Scientists and Engineers (RSEs) are organizing with UAW 4121 which also represents Academic Student Employees (ASEs), Teaching Assistants, Research Assistants, graders, and tutors. There are about 6000 ASEs and around 2400 in the unit now trying to win a contract.
The Librarian’s victory has spurred organizing by the Post-Docs and RSEs. This organizing is part of a general trend among higher education employees. This includes the massive strike at UC, the faculty victory at Rutgers, and the strike at University of Michigan. There are many causes for this new militancy: 1) Real wages have stagnated over the last several decades. The recent bout of inflation and poor university response to Covid put the icing on the cake. 2) Proletarianization: Post Docs and even Grad students used to be able to look forward to at least the hope of a secure, lucrative tenure track position in academia. They were more ready to put up with low wages as part of an apprenticeship for better positions. Tenure track positions across the U.S. have dried up. Much if not most undergraduate teaching is now done by grad students and non-tenured adjunct instructors. 3) Universities are more reliant on the workers who are now organizing. They now perform the bulk of the teaching and research at large universities. The Post-Docs and RSEs bring in a significant portion of the grant money universities receive. Many public employees are only indirectly exploited. They maintain the conditions necessary for the exploitation of private workers who directly produce surplus value. On the contrary, Post-Docs and RSEs are often directly exploited. They receive only a small portion of the wealth that the universities receive from their work.
These factors have pushed groups that previously saw themselves as professionals or at least future professionals to consider themselves workers. Labor unions have lost membership over the last few decades in traditional unionized fields, even though most workers would like to be in a union. Unions have begun to look at academic workers as a solution to their decline. The United Auto Workers is most notable in this regard, but other unions have done the same.
The strategic power of academic employees has shown itself in recent strikes. This contrasts with the often-weaker strategic power of some private workers. When a group of workers strike a small section of a large conglomerate, they only cut off a portion of the company’s profit. In the case of universities, academic workers can disrupt the functioning of the whole university. Researchers and workers can cut off a significant portion of the income of a university.
The June 7 Rally
Early in the morning of Wed June 7, pickets went up at the entrances to the University of Washington. The strike for a decent contract for Post Docs and RSEs had started. From noon to 1 PM, strikers and supporters rallied in front of the main administration building on Red Square. Members of the union and other supporters addressed the crowd. The main demands were summarized in a report from DSA :
1. Support for an inclusive workforce: Postdocs and Research Scientists and Engineers deserve fair agreements that include better support for parents and caregivers; and the same harassment prevention program for RSEs that is available for Postdocs and student employees.
2. Play by the rules: UW has committed multiple unfair labor practices and has been trying to evade the law establishing fair wages for salaried workers in Washington state. It’s time to bargain in good faith and reach fair agreements.
3. Fair Compensation: Many UW workers are struggling to make ends meet. According to UW’s own study, research scientists and engineers are the furthest behind market wages of any professional staff. Postdocs are also behind as well with the University attempting to weasel its way out Washington’s minimum salary laws.
Speakers stressed that the UW is paying these workers below the market rate. They want $72,000 per year for salaried employees and a 30% raise for those paid by the hour. The cost of living in the Seattle area is very high. A one-bedroom apartment on the average runs over $ 2000 a month. The UW is losing these valuable workers to other companies and agencies due to these low salaries.
Solidarity from other unions is impressive. Washington Federation of State Employees has a clause in its contract that allows their members to honor picket lines of other unions for their own safety. Leaders of WFSE are urging their members to use that clause. The newly organized librarians and UW Press workers in SEIU pledged their support. The Martin Luther Jr. King County Labor Council with 150,000 members has given strike sanction which authorizes all other unions to respect the picket lines.
If this solidarity is fully carried out, UW administration would soon find itself under enormous pressure to grant a decent contract. How effective this solidarity is in practice remains to be seen.
The theme of the rally was solidarity. “An injury to one is an injury to all” was expressed over and over. Similar sentiments echoed through the rally, “When you win, we all win”. Strikers were outraged at the UW administration voicing values of inclusivity and concern for employees while still paying them poorly. This outrage was especially aimed at top administrators who “earn” over a million dollars each. The top ten receive a total of $12 million a year!
The only controversy at the rally was the speech of a representative from city council member Kshama Sawant of Socialist Alternative and Workers Strike Back. She rightly denounced the Democratic Party for refusing to pass rent control legislation and being more concerned with the functioning of the University than the needs of the workers. She also criticized the King County Labor Council for refusing to endorse Workers Strike Back’s recent rally in support of the right to strike. She argued for labor breaking with the Democrats and forming a labor party.
The organizers of the rally seemed nervous during this speech. The MC came on after and stressed how appreciative the strikers were for support from the Labor Council and all their backers in general. The response of the crowd was mixed. A Democratic Party legislator got a great deal of applause for her speech in support of the strikers. The speaker from Sawant’s office got less support but still significant applause.
This controversy highlights an important debate within the labor movement. The leadership of the labor movement has adopted a policy of collaborating with corporations and politicians rather than mobilizing workers for an all-out confrontation. Often, they have used strikes sporadically to let off steam and settled for weak contracts to preserve labor peace. Part of this strategy is support for a bosses’ party, the Democrats. Within labor, rank and file movements have pushed for a more militant strategy and sometimes for breaking with the Democrats. Socialists need to support these movements and try to increase the militancy and rank and file democracy within unions. We need to oppose class collaboration on economics and politics. However, we also need to give support to workers whenever they fight against exploitation, whether they follow a more militant strategy or not.
The prospects for the strike are good. The UW depends on these workers for a significant part of its income. This dependence is greater than in previous decades because of declining state support to public universities. Public universities including the UW have become more and more privatized. The more solidarity these workers get, the quicker and the greater their victory will be. It is in the interest of every worker and every labor advocate to support these workers!
Addition on the strike on June 8: Post docs do not want to track their hours, so want to be paid enough to be exempt from overtime under state law. In 2024 this will likely be $72,000 a year. Violating state law , the UW claims that PostDocs should already be overtime exempt at lower pay. The union believes this is illegal. RSEs are looking for a 30% increase. They are paid 30 % under the prevailing wage for this type of work in other institutions. The UW has instead offered paltry wage increases over the next few years. Post Docs have a now. RSEs though having been organized for years have no contract.
Addition from The Stand ( Washington State Labor Council): “Seattle Times reports: Hours before he was scheduled to give the commencement speech to the University of Washington’s graduating class of students, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona canceled his appearance, citing a strike by graduate and postdoctoral researchers. “Secretary Cardona will not cross the picket line to give the commencement address,” a spokesperson for Cardona said.” This was on Saturday June 10. The power of the picket line !!
