Join UAW 4121 rally on Jan. 11 against privatized UW housing

UPDATED (Jan. 11, 2023) — This rally is also in support of members of Washington State Federation of State Employees Local 1495, whose custodial and maintenance work at existing UW housing could be contracted out.

The following is from UAW 4121:

SEATTLE — UAW 4121, the union of Academic Student Employees, Postdocs, and Research Scientists/Engineers A-4 at the University of Washington, and the tenants of UW’s “Housing 4” properties will rally on Wednesday against privatized student and family housing. The rally will take place outside the UW Regents meeting and will end with public comments at the meeting.

The purpose of this rally is for residents of Radford Court, Blakeley Village, Laurel Village and Nordheim Court to stand together with UW community members to tell UW that unilaterally privatizing student and family housing is a bad call. This stance comes in response to the Regents’ September 2022 decision to offload graduate student and family housing to a private real estate company via a long-term land lease, which would leave current residents displaced and/or severely rent burdened by the new “market rate” rent. This deal is intended to line the Housing and Food Services budget, at the expense of UW’s own graduate students and families.

TAKE A STAND — All union members and community supporters are invited to join the rally at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 11 at Red Square on the University of Washington’s Seattle campus.

This rally is just one element of a larger campaign by UAW 4121 for more safe and affordable housing for the entire UW community, just as the fate of these housing properties is part of a larger picture of Seattle’s expensive and inaccessible housing market. As a public university — not to mention a prominent employer and landlord — UW should make decisions for the good of their own community and the wider public, rather than displacing its own staff and students.

► Oct. 21, 2022 in The Stranger — Hey, UW: Don’t privatize our student housing (by Erin Angelini, Anne Duncan, Levin Kim, Avi Matarasso and Jake Wilson) — The housing crisis in the Seattle area is about to get even worse because of bad decisions made by the people who are entrusted with leading our public university. Recently, the UW administration announced that they plan to accept bids to privatize four major student housing developments. Through our union, UAW Local 4121, Academic Student Employees and Postdocs are calling UW to account: we are coming together to demand housing justice predicated on the notion that everyone deserves housing that is stable, affordable, and accessible.

UAW Local 4121 is the Union at UW of Academic Student Employees and Postdocs.  We are RAs, TAs, Tutors, Graders, Trainees, Fellows, and Postdoctoral Scholars. We are more than 6,000 strong at all three UW campuses: Seattle, Tacoma, and Bothell. UW works because we do.