On Monday, Dec. 21, a majority of UW’s 1,500 researchers filed their representation petition with the Public Employment Relations Commission seeking to be certified as a new bargaining unit with UAW Local 4121, which represents more than 6,000 Academic Student Employees and Postdocs at UW.
According to the Researchers, the university can appoint and reappoint academic researchers on a monthly basis because there’s no minimum appointment length. And those appointments are not even guaranteed – UW can lay off researchers at any time and for no reason without notice or compensation.