As you have no doubt heard, our graduate students are now represented by the United Autoworkers Union. The graduate student/union bargaining team will soon be beginning negotiations with the WSU bargaining team to build an initial collective bargaining agreement. During the bargaining process, it is important that faculty not do or say anything that creates legal risk for the university and/or complicates the bargaining process. One area to watch out for is called “interference.” This means that we should not, intentionally or unintentionally, say anything (including in posts on social media) that might convey approval or disapproval of unions, unionization by our students, collective bargaining, etc. We also should not be asking graduate students about their opinions regarding the union or what they think about specific bargaining topics.If in doubt about what you can and can’t say, the safest course is to not say anything at all. For more information, please see HRS Employer Tips and Tools.
Christine Horne
Faculty Senate Chair
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