Postdocs and staff researchers go on strike at the University of Washington
After months of negotiations, 2400 postdocs and staff researchers at the University of Washington (UW) went on strike today, arguing that the university’s proposed contract terms don’t amount to a fair wage. The roughly 6000 graduate students at UW won’t be on strike, but some of them—as members of the same union that represents postdocs and staff researchers—have pledged to not cross the picket lines. The strike comes on the heels of a change in state law on 1 January, which mandated that overtime-exempt salaried employees at organizations with 51 or more employees be paid at least $65,484 annually—which is more than what many UW postdocs made previously. UW President Ana Mari Cauce argued in a 31 March letter to the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries that the minimum salary thresholds, which will increase annually and...