Workers at WWU, one of Bellingham’s biggest employers, rally for higher wages, benefits
Union workers and others rallied Thursday at Western Washington University, seeking increased pay in the face of inflation and the rising cost of rent.
About 200 students and employees, from professors to food servers and maintenance workers, gathered at WWU’s Red Square for a noon event on March 14, or “Pi Day” in pop culture, to ask the Legislature to fully fund public education and demand that the university pay its workers equitably.
“We refuse to fight over a shrinking pie. We need more pie!” said WWU gardener Mirabelle Lemieux, eliciting cheers from the crowd.
Lemieux, a recent WWU graduate, is a member of the Washington Federation of State Employees union. She told the crowd how WWU is Whatcom County’s third-largest employer, with 2,060 workers in 2021, and that dozens of university administrators earn salaries that reach well into six figures.
“We’re not here to complain. We’re here to demand change,” she said.
According to the nationwide salary database Open Payrolls, WWU President Sabah Randhawa was paid $422,600 in 2021. Nearly 400 university employees earned more than $100,000 a year in 2021, when the average campus worker’s salary was $64,620.
“The brunt of the budget crisis tends to fall on students and workers,” student and Western Academic Workers United member Lexy Aydelotte said at the rally.
Aydelotte, a teaching assistant in history who is writing her master’s thesis, is a graduate of Sehome High. Her mother and grandmother both earned degrees from WWU and achieved success before rising rents and tuition left millions of graduates with tens of thousands of dollars in student loans.
“Like a lot of us, I come from a family of hard workers. But I’m telling you, it does not work,” she told the crowd.
Several elected officials attended the rally, including Bellingham City Council member Jace Cotton, along with 40th District state Rep. Alex Ramel and 42nd District state Rep. Joe Timmons, both Bellingham Democrats whose districts include part of Whatcom County.
Ramel drew a throughline to illustrate how activism and perseverance switched the 42nd District from all Republicans to all Democrats in less than a decade, and also added more Democrats to countywide elected positions.
“When workers get together and organize, we make the whole institution better,” Ramel said. “This campus has power. When we’re organized together, we can accomplish so much.”
Marine biologist Jaime Blais, a teaching and research assistant at the Shannon Point Marine Center, said many university employees are living paycheck to paycheck.
“It’s not about making extra cash. It’s about making ends meet,” Blais said.
