WSU grad students decry ‘bad faith’ during protest

Chants echoed through Washington State University when a group of graduate students staged a protest Wednesday, after filing an unfair labor practice complaint against the institution about a week ago.

The WSU Coalition of Academic Student Employees gathered on campus for a rally, protesting the administration’s bargaining process and what it sees as unfair treatment of the institution’s workers. The protest drew quite a crowd as dozens of students joined and marched with the group down Glenn Terrell Mall.

The coalition, also known as WSU-CASE, is a union composed of undergraduate and graduate teaching and research students, as well as other student employees. It aims to secure higher wages and greater protections, including better healthcare, lower fees and anti-discrimination policies along with others.

Along with studying at WSU, graduate students also work at the institution. Students fill many roles, including teaching positions, research and more.

The union has about 2,000 members. It filed for certification in May 2022 and elected a bargaining committee in November of that year.

Bargaining with WSU administration began February this year, and the group feels the institution has been negotiating in bad faith.

Gavin Doyle, a doctoral student studying English composition and rhetoric, said the process has been frustrating. He added WSU administration has been stalling and has on more than one occasion delayed conversations.

“WSU continues to bargain with us in bad faith,” Doyle said. “They’re not moving toward us and the counterproposals they have been giving us have been, for the lack of a better word, insulting.”

Phil Weiler, vice president of university marketing and communications, stated in an email the university supports the rights of workers to organize. The university has bargained in good faith, and has hopes to reach an initial contract agreement. Also, the university and the union have made significant progress during their negotiations, he said.

Doyle said the coalition has been bargaining with WSU for about seven months now, and the coalition wants to reach a conclusion as quickly as possible.

While the process goes on, some students are still struggling.

Acacia Patterson, a graduate student studying physics, said many students are struggling to survive on WSU’s wages. She said graduate students are paid less than a living wage and have to expend their paychecks on “extraordinary” fees on things like healthcare, parking and transportation, rent and groceries.

“We are a critical part of (WSU), the research and work we do — they rely on it,” Patterson said. “They should be ensuring their employees have a living wage. It’s their responsibility to take care of their employees and students. Right now we can’t teach effectively, we can’t research effectively, when we’re rent burdened and food-insecure.”

Darcy Bird, a doctoral student studying anthropology, said some of her friends have skipped meals because they couldn’t afford to buy groceries. She added many graduate students rely on the WSU Food Pantry to be fed.

“I’d finish my degree sooner if I wasn’t concerned with living expenses,” Bird said.

Early last week the coalition filed an unfair labor practice complaint at the Washington State Public Employment Relations Commission (PERC) against the university. The complaint states WSU reportedly acted illegally by failing to bargain changes to its healthcare plan.

The healthcare plan was a part of the list of the demands the coalition presented in February. In May, WSU notified the group it had unilaterally developed a version of the plan for the upcoming year, which needed to be finalized and submitted in five days.

The coalition claims it didn’t receive the proposed plan until a day before the deadline. It revised and submitted a new plan, but WSU rejected the proposal. Later, the group learned benefits in the approved plan had been changed without their knowledge and without bargaining.

Moving forward, the complaint will be reviewed at a state level by PERC, and if it determines the charges are accurate, it will notify WSU for a rebuttal. PERC will review the complaint for a second time, and review WSU’s rebuttal, if it provides one.

Priyanka Bushana, a graduated doctoral neuroscience student, said the coalition is working to take collective action and make sure people know what’s going on to give opportunities to be a part of the process.

“It may be easy for admin to ignore the 20 to 30 people in the bargaining room,” Bushana said. “But it’s hard for them to ignore the hundreds of people who come to protests like this.”

To learn more about WSU-CASE, visit its website at wsucase.org. To view updates on negotiations, visit WSU’s website at hrs.wsu.edu.

Pearce can be reached at epearce@dnews.com.

Pearce can be reached at epearce@dnews.com