January 19, 2022
CERSE Assistant Director Cara Margherio was interviewed by The Stranger about the ongoing effort by UW Research Staff to organize a union.
Dr. Margherio is on the union’s Organizing Committee, which aims to improve equity at UW through collective bargaining. Currently, academic researchers at UW are not part of a union. UW research staff do advanced work, often following years of training and experience, to address society’s most urgent issues: from Covid to climate change and more. Yet their compensation is not always commensurate with their contributions and they lack job stability and career development/advancement opportunities. In December 2021, a majority of UW’s 1,500 Research Scientist/Engineers (Assistant-4) filed a 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. Pandemic-induced labor shortages have inspired an increase in unionization throughout the U.S. and Dr. Margherio remarks that she is proud to be part of this nationwide movement.
