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As undergraduate Teaching Assistants at UW, we understand the value of hard work. It’s how we pay the bills each month, by TAing various classes for fellow undergrads, and how we succeed in our degree programs. The work we do helps power UW and makes it the prestigious learning environment it is.
What we didn’t understand is why UW would make each of us do hundreds of dollars of unpaid work.
Last year, we were hired as TAs for the 14x introductory sequence in Computer Science & Engineering; these are competitive positions and we were thrilled to have been selected. Of course, it makes sense to go through some training in order to do this important work; we know this is a reasonable expectation in any job. What we didn’t know was that unlike other TAs in the department, we were not paid for required weekly training time plus “grading parties” — hours of unpaid work every week. Meanwhile, returning TAs who attended those very same grading parties were paid for that time.
We felt that our contributions were being devalued despite the fact that 14x quite literally couldn’t run without us. A few of us started having conversations with other TAs. Pretty soon, we knew it wasn’t just one or two of us feeling this way; everyone we talked to was questioning why we were not being paid for training that was required to do our jobs.
We decided to take action together, as it would be daunting for any of us to take this on as an individual pitted against the UW administration.
As unionized workers part of UAW Local 4121, which represents Academic Student Employees and Postdocs at UW, we have secured a strong contract that protects our workplace rights. The department's practice of not paying us for training and grading parties was in violation of our contract, which states that all required training and work hours must be paid.
We drafted a sign-on letter stating that this practice was against our contract, asking the department to end it, and to pay all TAs, current and past, who had not been paid for the required training time. We went into organizing overdrive to collect signatures by having as many one-on-one conversations as possible with past and present 14x TAs. Several TAs got involved with organizing for the first time: They circulated the petition in Facebook/Discord groups, sent it to alumni, and shared it with fellow TAs. Within 8 hours, half of the TAs directly impacted had signed on. Less than 24 hours later, two-thirds had signed on. In the end, 100% of the new TAs directly impacted, and 97% of all 14x TAs, signed the letter. The final letter had nearly 200 signatures from 14x TAs and other community members.
Just a few days after we started gathering signatures, we filed a grievance with our department and UW administration. A grievance is a formal procedure, laid out in our contract, by which we can promptly resolve contract violations with our employer. With the backing of nearly 200 14x TAs and allies, the mandate was clear: the Computer Science department needed to change its policy of required work for no pay.
Department leaders and UW administration understood our power in numbers. Immediately upon meeting with us, they agreed that presently and going forward, TAs would be paid for the required training and for “grading parties.” That was great, but we also wanted redress for the TAs who had been affected by this in past quarters and were owed back pay.
After several more weeks of discussion, debate, and pressure from us, UW administration agreed to award back pay to over 90 TAs and to pay the 35 TAs who are currently taking the training. Each TA received around $420, which amounted to over $50,000 won.
Our victory would not have been possible without the power and momentum we generated together as unionized workers. It wasn’t just filing a grievance itself, as important as that was; it was also the collective action we put behind the grievance through active one-on-one organizing — the 14x TAs who signed the open letter, shared it with their colleagues and got involved in the grievance meetings. This is how we can continue protecting and improving our workplace conditions as undergrad academic student employees, and win even more victories going forward.
Julia Ball, fourth-year undergraduate, computer science
Ray He, fourth-year undergraduate, computer science
Amal Nanavati, PhD student, computer science
(1) comment
Unions have been dead for 30 years, but they are suddenly fashionable again. As much as increased pay for workers is something to celebrate for, it will only be handed back to students in the form of increased tuition if enough people unionize. Seattle needs to stop subsidized housing, which has not helped the homeless problem at all, and open up private development to create more supply and lower rent prices.
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