WSU Tri-Cities student workers feeling ‘exploited’ threaten to strike this week

More than a thousand academic student employees at Washington State University could walk off the job Wednesday, Jan. 17, if they don’t come to a tentative agreement over their first contract.

That could impact research and class work at WSU Tri-Cities, where research assistants and teaching assistants in the wine sciences, engineering and biology departments plan to picket.

The strike comes as negotiations between the WSU Coalition of Academic Student Employees-UAW and university administration enter into a 12th month.

Union leaders say the university hasn’t been willing to provide a suitable counter proposal to their request for higher wages, better health care, promised tuition wavers, clearer policies around leave and an additional two weeks of paid parental leave.

The union’s proposal would guarantee raises, as well as minimum monthly wages starting at $2,485.

If the two parties don’t come to an agreement before Jan. 17, student employees at the Tier 1 research institute could enter an indefinite strike.

“We have tried to reach a bargaining conclusion, but admin is dragging their feet,” said Carrington Moore, a fourth-year WSU Tri-Cities graduate student pursuing her PhD in chemical engineering.

“We provide a huge benefit to the school and under the current system are being exploited,” she said.

Moore currently works under a fellowship, which has provided her a better wage than her peers. But she said she’s still been unable to schedule doctors appointments because of unaffordable out-of-pocket costs.

“Right now, I don’t feel I can recommend Washington State University to graduate students,” she said.

It’s not immediately clear how many Tri-City students would walk off the job. The coalition’s efforts to unionize in 2022 reportedly affected 50 students at the Tri-Cities satellite campus.

But a strike would impact campuses or extension centers all over the state, including in Pullman, Spokane, Vancouver, Mount Vernon, Prosser, Puyallup and Wenatchee.

“WSU admin needs to take academic student employees seriously, to take our labor seriously, and to take our demands for a contract seriously,” Andre Diehl, a third-year doctoral candidate in WSU’s American studies program, said in a statement.

“Fair pay, adequate health insurance, a reprieve from burdensome and misleading fees, and parental leave aren’t unreasonable: they are what we need to focus on our work without constantly worrying about our health and well being,” Diehl continued.

In fall 2022, about 1,600 graduate and undergraduate teaching assistants, research assistants, tutors and graders voted to form the labor union to ask for better pay and more equitable hours.

Universities often pay students below the state’s minimum wage due to their student status, and workers often aren’t allowed to seek additional employment opportunities outside their college. Weekly hours are also capped.

Negotiations began February 2023. In early November 2023, the unit held a strike authorization vote where roughly 93% voted in favor of picketing.