Contract Bargaining Update #1: Bargaining Begins Next Week!



The NULWU bargaining team is ready for our first session with Northwestern next week! It is incredibly exciting to reach this moment, especially because the unionization effort at the Library began two years ago this month. The end goal of this effort is to have a contract in place, and we are finally at the point where we are ready to bargain our first one!

A lot has happened since we won our election in December. We’ve asked members about their priorities for our first contract, had several all-union meetings, formed a bargaining team, and met many times to develop our proposals.

Who is the bargaining team? We are NULWU members representing non-exempt staff, exempt staff, and librarians across NUL. We represent different workgroups including Access Services, Instruction & Curriculum Support, Preservation, and many more. Every member of the team either volunteered or was nominated by another colleague in the bargaining unit. Our reasons for joining are unique, but what we share is a commitment to improving the working lives of the staff at NUL through collective bargaining.

We are going to begin by bargaining over non-economic proposals. These are proposals that are essential to our union but do not cost the University money: the grievance process, terms of membership, union rights, flexible work schedules, and more. When each proposal is finished we will reach a Tentative Agreement (TA) and move on to the next item. It will take multiple sessions, each one a half day long, before we can move onto economic proposals such as annual cost of living raises (the stuff that costs the University money!).

Continue to show your support for our union by wearing buttons and changing Zoom backgrounds to our logo! Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to keep up with the latest updates. Reach out to us with questions or ideas through social media, weekly lunch break office hours, or by asking a bargaining committee member.


-NULWU Bargaining Team

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