BRIEF: Protect the Pie rally unites student workers

On Friday, Western Academic Workers Union (WAWU), sponsored by the United Auto Workers (UAW), organized a rally in Red Square called Protect the Pie. Drawing a large crowd, the rally featured a handful of speakers, including WAWU board members, student workers and other Western Washington University employees.

The rally aimed to gather support for Washington legislature’s House Bill 1570 and its companion Senate Bill 5119. If passed, the bills would extend collective bargaining rights to student employees who are not already covered at Western, as well as at Eastern Washington University, Central Washington University and The Evergreen State College.

HB 1570 is scheduled for a public hearing in the House Committee on Appropriations on Saturday, Feb. 22.

After striking in the spring, WAWU reached an agreement with the university, designating educational student employees (ESEs) as a recognized union. However, operational student employees (OSEs) are not designated as such. HB 1570/SB 5119 would bring all student workers closer to the goal of recognition.

Speakers were also critical of proposed state funding cuts to higher education. To solve the state’s budget shortfall, Governor Bob Ferguson has come up with a 3% budget cut for state schools. This is coupled with Western’s $18 million budget cuts.

Western already has the lowest state funding on a per-student basis, according to the Legislative Evaluation and Accountability Program Committee’s “Higher Education Historical Data Report,” updated in May 2024.

One of the speakers, Paul Carlson, who is the president of the Washington Federation of State Employees (WFSE) WWU bargaining team, said that the university was looking to cut over 100 staff positions, though this has not been confirmed by the university.

Another speaker, Lisa Perry, was recently told that she will no longer have a position at the Print and Copy Center, where she has worked since 2013.

“When they told us that we were going to be in the layoff group that’s coming up, it really hit me hard. This is real. I don’t have a job,” Perry said. “I honestly just don’t want people to be in my position. Talk to your union leader; talk to your coworkers; talk to everybody on campus.”

The university plans to outsource the Print and Copy Center, cutting three positions, according to Perry.

“They’re trying to trim the fat. But fat keeps you warm, and it's cold,” Carlson said. “Also, we’re not just the fat. We’re the meat, the bones, the muscle. We move this university; students are the lifeblood.”

The rally began with a game of call and response aptly named “Raise your hand,” where attendees recognized their shared struggles to find affordable housing, pay for tuition and eat healthy. 

Carlson and Mattie Horn, the financial secretary on the executive board of WAWU, orchestrated the rally. First, they called up Ian Schaefer Lorenz, a student research technologist and public school employee union member, who contextualized some of the disheartening news of the Trump administration.

“Every day, I see news that deeply discourages me. Even though the media says this is unprecedented, it actually isn’t,” Schaefer Lorenz said. “We’ve been through phases of mass repression and reversal of rights before. My hope was to provide framing, to help myself feel less afraid.”

Then came Perry, followed by Mate Pasztor, a worker at the whole food pantry, and rounded out by McLean Bowers, a student advisor for off-campus living.

“Our goal today was to get a broad perspective of those who work at the university and who are really invested in higher education,” Bowers said.

The rally ended with organizers calling on everyone to fill out a “Contact Your Legislators in Olympia” form and to register their position on HB 1570.