Bargaining blog 4/15/2026: Time for a second contract!

On Tuesday, we had our first bargaining session for our second contract! Before we presented our first set of proposals to the University, we discussed ground rules. As we did for our first contract, we agreed to open bargaining, meaning union members who are not on the bargaining committee can attend bargaining sessions on their lunch breaks or PTO. Having members attend bargaining sessions signals to the University that members care about the issues being discussed. Members can also share testimonials on how the issues at hand affect them. This will become especially important when we get to economic proposals further down the road, so stay tuned!

We also agreed that the Union can share information about bargaining sessions publicly, like on this blog and on social media! This will help us share updates about our bargaining sessions for our bargaining unit, the campus community, and the general public.


After introductions, we shared our first set of non-economic proposals, or proposals that don’t cost the University money. We had twelve proposals in all, and they included topics that members and stewards had identified as important to address for our second contract. Some examples are limits on how long someone can be a temporary supervisor, stipulations for when management needs to post jobs, and limits on how management can implement artificial intelligence specifically and surveillance in general.


After a brief caucus, management said they were not ready to share counter-proposals or come to tentative agreements (TAs) on the proposals we shared during the session. We are hopeful that we will have a few TAs to share after our next bargaining session, which will be on May 5. They did promise to share both counter-proposals and proposals of their own at that session. We intend to have additional proposals to share with them as well.


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

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