Today the faculty of The Evergreen State College voted yes to represent ourselves through the United Faculty of Evergreen (UFE). The faculty is now part of a union, the United Faculty of Washington State. We are grateful to our colleagues for their support and vote.

During the campaign, we pledged to “form a faculty union to protect our best traditions of collaborative governance and to strengthen our ability, as faculty, to have a voice in the future of public higher education in our state”. We believe our union will help restore and strengthen the faculty voice. We will now be able to negotiate with the administration on key issues and ensure they uphold our agreements.

UFE ran a positive campaign based on Evergreen traditions of collaborative discussion, debate, and deliberation and we pledge to continue listening to and working with all our faculty colleagues across campuses, planning units, programs and disciplines. Today’s vote is also the beginning of a renewed commitment to the mission of Evergreen to provide innovative, interdisciplinary educational programs and to help our students and community learn to work collaboratively in addressing real issues and problems. We invite all our colleagues to join with us to help shape the future of our college and do what we do best -- engage in collaborative, critical teaching with our students.

To the administration, we pledge to negotiate with you as equals under the faculty collective bargaining law. We pledge to bargain in good faith and to work together to achieve Evergreen’s mission.

During the upcoming months, we will focus on three areas:

1. Establishing a creative, democratic local union by adopting a constitution and bylaws, developing a broadFaculty Stewards Council, electing local union officers and encouraging a strong UFE membership;

2. Preparing for collective bargaining through a faculty wide bargaining survey, campus faculty meetings, and selection of a bargaining team;

3. Working with other United Faculty of Washington State faculty unions and our union affiliates, the Washington Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers Washington, to strengthen public support for public higher education.

We look forward to working with everyone in the Evergreen community to enhance our unique values and traditions through the power of collective bargaining. We also look forward to working with our union colleagues at the other state colleges and universities to promote public higher education in Washington State.