We are on the verge of something historic! A jointly written bill to grant collective bargaining rights to faculty at the UW and other higher ed. institutions is to be introduced in both houses of the legislature today. Amazingly, the UW administration has agreed to support it! It has a number of powerful sponsors, the backing of the faculty senates of all six campuses, and insiders think there is a good chance it will pass. If so it will end the anomaly in state law that leaves faculty, TAs, and some other university employees without the normal rights that most public and private sector employees enjoy. A separate TA bill also has a good chance.

The faculty bill represents months of three-party negotiation between leaders of the Faculty Senate, the administration, and the Washington Federation of Teachers which represents faculty on the Central and Eastern campuses. Dick Ludwig, who is the Faculty Senate legislative representative and Brad Holt (Senate chair) have been at this for months, working with Vice Provost Steve Olswang, Wendy Rader-Konofalksi of the WFT, and the Council of Faculty Representatives from WSU, Western, Eastern, Central, and Evergreen.

The bill is sponsored by a number of legislators and will be introduced in the House Committee of Commerce and Labor chaired by Steve Conway (D-Tacoma) and the Senate Committee on Labor, Commerce, and Financial Institutions chaired by Margarita Prentice (D-Seattle). Both are sponsors of the bill. A full list of sponsors should be available tomorrow.

President McCormick has made this possible. The Faculty Senate has tried for almost four decades to convince the legislature to extend basic collective bargaining rights to faculty, and throughout those four decades the UW administration has always used its Olympia clout to maintain the exemption. Whether or not this bill passes, President McCormick deserves thanks and credit for agreeing to jointly negotiate a workable framework. Brad Holt, Dick Ludwig, Lea Vaughn, Steve Olswang, and Wendy Rader-Konofalski also deserve thanks and congratulations. They've put an enormous number of hours and an enormous amount of creative effort into these negotiations. We are all in their debt.

But there is much to be done. The legislature has a ton of work to do on the budget and unless we make it clear that the collective bargaining bill is also important, it may be sidelined. Get ready to write letters. Olympia is going to need to hear from us.