Above Photo: American University staff marching at the Washington College of Law on the first day of the strike. Sarah Y. Kim / DCist/WAMU.
Union Reaches Agreement With Employer After Strike And Student Walkout.
Update, 5:49 p.m.: American University’s staff union has reached a tentative contract agreement with administrators. Montgomery County Council candidate Kristin Mink, who has been on campus today during the negotiation, captured the scene as bargainers announced the news just after 5 p.m.
Original: American University administrators resumed negotiations Friday morning with staff who were on strike this week demanding higher wages and equitable pay. It was the first bargaining session administrators held with the staff’s union since contract negotiations failed last week due to disputes over raises.
The bargaining session comes at the end of a nearly week long strike which began Monday and coincided with move-in week for undergraduates. The strike officially ended 3 p.m. Friday, as planned. It is unclear when the current round of negotiations will end.
The strike kicked off at the Washington College of Law on Monday, and the union has spent much of the following days marching and chanting on the university’s main campus near residence halls.
Just prior to the bargaining session, President Sylvia Burwell was delivering a speech at convocation when students walked out, chanting “pay your staff.” Union members and supporters had marched to the convocation site, Bender Arena, before proceeding to Massachusetts Avenue. On Thursday, Peter Starr, provost and chief academic officer of American University, sent an email to faculty regarding convocation – saying that they “are no longer asking faculty to attend in person.”
American University’s vice president and chief communications officer Matt Bennett forwarded a statement to DCist/WAMU, indicating that the university asked the union for dates earlier in the week to resume negotiations on contracts for both the staff union and adjunct faculty, and that its bargaining team suggested meeting Friday. “AU is eager to reach a fair resolution on contracts with both groups,” the statement read.
However, a union spokesperson told DCist/WAMU Wednesday morning that administrators had not indicated that they planned to resume negotiations since the strike began. Regarding the bargaining session Friday, the spokesperson said the administration “finally responded” after days of protests.
Asked to clarify when the university reached out to the union this week, Bennett replied: “I can tell you we asked for dates on Wednesday.” He pushed back against the claim that administrators did not indicate they wanted to resume negotiations before that time.
“We have always been prepared to discuss the proposal at the bargaining table, which is where the negotiations have to take place,” he wrote.
The union, with SEIU Local 500, is made up of 550 staff of the provost’s division and formed in November 2020. Negotiations failed last week due primarily to disputes over raises. Staff in the union, who are demanding a “living wage,” wanted a 5% guaranteed raise in the first year of the contract. The university’s latest final offer was a 2.5% raise with a possible 1.5% merit increase. Union leaders also filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board, accusing the university of unfair labor practices.