Student workers file for union, vow to change law

Operational Student Employees at Western have reached majority support for their union amid a push to change state law to expand bargaining rights

BELLINGHAM, WA (December 9, 2025) — The 1,100 Operational Student Employees at Western Washington University filed to form a union with majority support at the Washington State Public Employment Relations Commission (PERC) yesterday, once more indicating the immense support among these workers for a union. This is the third time OSEs have reached majority and filed to join WAWU-UAW Local 4929 in the last three years.

So why aren’t these workers in a union already? Currently, state law does not extend collective bargaining rights to OSEs. While other classes of student workers are eligible to organize — and have unionized at campuses across Washington state — OSEs remained barred from one of the most fundamental rights of any worker: to join together with fellow employees to collectively bargain for better working conditions. So along with organizing their union, OSEs are also pushing to change state law.

Occupational Student Employees celebrating filing for their union. Photo: WAWU-UAW

They’re urging legislators to support HB 1570 when the 2026 Legislative Session convenes in January, codifying collective bargaining rights for OSEs. Introduced in the 2025 session, the bill originally called for these rights to be granted to all OSEs at all public university campuses in Washington, an objective that left the bill with a hefty estimated financial cost from the state’s Office of Financial Management (OFM). In 2026, the bill will have a narrower scope, applying only to OSEs at Western, in an effort to keep these estimated costs low during a legislative session sure to be marked by tough budget negotiations.

And this time around, university administration has pledged to support student workers’ efforts to pass this legislation.

“It’s clear that Operational Student Employees want the same union protections their peers at Western already enjoy,” said M Wright, Art Department staff, in a statement announcing the PERC filing.

Working together as OSES have made gains despite lacking codified bargaining rights due to the workers’ dedicated organizing, seeking parity with other classes of student workers who already enjoy the right to unionize. They won significant rights after a strike in June, successfully pressuring university president Sabah Randhawa to agree to seven workplace protections, including pay parity with Educational Student Employees and doubling sick leave accrual. But workers are committed to changing the law so that those gains can be enshrined in a union contract.

“While OSEs have secured important rights like layoff, increased sick time and a grievance process equivalent to our Educational Student Employee counterparts, this equity is partial,” continued M Wright. “We look forward to finally forming our union, and having a collective say in determining our working conditions.”