Negotiations Recap for March 23, 2015
This recap details the fifth bargaining session between the UW and the UWHA to form the first union contract for UW medical and dental residents and fellows (collectively referred to below as “trainees”).
Transportation Discussion
Josh Kavanagh, Director of UW Transportation Services, attended the meeting to discuss the role of his department and to provide an overview of parking at the UW.
Scope: Transportation Services is responsible for Seattle campus shuttles, fleet, U-PASS, and parking for the main campus and certain Seattle leased properties. Transportation Services generally oversees contracting and administration, but the parking and transportation programs for Harborview and the Seattle, Bothell, and Tacoma campuses are financially independent from one another.
Products and Accessibility: The selection and pricing of all products are consistent across employee groups. Transportation Services offers a diversity of products in order to be responsive to the varying needs and means of UW employees, and no employee group receives free parking at their primary work site.
At UW, residents and fellows do receive priority access to the Portage Bay Garage, where they may purchase pay-per-use parking passes, and are eligible for reimbursement for second-site parking in cases where travel to more than one training location in the same day is required.
Policies and Decision-Making: The primary decision-making framework for changes to parking rates and other transportation policy matters is the University Transportation Committee, which is comprised of a range of representatives including faculty, unions, and administrators from across the University and UW Medicine.
UW Proposals
Grievance Procedure – UW made several proposals related to grievance procedure, including:
- Filing: UW accepted UWHA’s proposal to allow the union 60 days from an incident (or knowledge thereof) to file a grievance or to provide notice of its intent to file a grievance. If the latter, the union would have 30 days from providing notice to file an actual grievance.
- Process: UW proposed language to keep Step One grievance meetings at the program level, occurring between the trainee and Program Director, but made clear that UWHA may waive Step One and proceed directly to Step Two. UW maintained its proposal for Step Two grievances to involve the GME and Labor Relations offices.
- Grievance Committee: UW proposed a Step Three whereby the union could choose to pursue mediation or the Grievance Committee. Modeled after UWHA’s proposal, this committee would consist of current Graduate Medical Education Committee (GMEC) members, including two representatives chosen by the GMEC Chair and two residents chosen by UWHA. The committee would issue a written consensus statement of its findings and recommendations, which either party could reject and advance to Step Four.
“Effects of Leave” Policies
In response to a conversation at the last bargaining session, UW stated that it had reviewed all available programs’ “effects of leave” policies, and committed to investigate the possibility of making such policies accessible to trainees in MedHub.
Next Steps
The next UW-UWHA bargaining session is scheduled for April 6.