ASL Interpreters Union FAQs
What are we working to achieve?
Here is the mission statement of the ASL Interpreters Union:
Our mission is to build an inclusive and strong union, by and for interpreters, that supports us in our work and improves the sustainability of our workplaces. This effort aims to bring humanity back into the essential services we provide and increase the longevity of careers in VRS, leading to further skill development and the retention of seasoned interpreters. Upon winning our union and beginning contract negotiations, we commit to bargaining for the common good: securing a collective bargaining agreement that benefits us as interpreters and the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community that we serve. We commit to having representation from Deaf users working closely with our bargaining team and will seek to bargain requirements in our contract mandating how companies can improve service quality.
What kind of contract are we fighting for?
- Higher and more transparent wages that make up the difference between community and VRS interpreting.
- Benefits for part time workers.
- Breaks that allow for interpreters to be fully prepared for their next call.
- More training and mentorship for new interpreters.
- Real deaf community input into the business.
- More CDIs.
- Better staffing and so less wait times for users.
- More support for trilingual interpreters.
What is our plan to win?
- We’re going to keep getting as much support as possible from interpreters. We need as many interpreters as possible to step up and submit a photo-quote, and reach out to an organizer to be onboarded to our organizing committee.
- We’re going to be building pressure on the FCC to take action. We specifically want the FCC to make a public statement that says that the TRS fund should not be used to oppose interpreters’ rights to organize. We will do this by getting our stories out there to both the press and by setting up meetings with our members of Congress urging them to call on the FCC to act.
- We’re going to be meeting with public pension funds that invest with Ariel, Blackstone, Kinderhook and Carlyle and urge them to stay neutral on any organizing campaign, obey the law, and ensure a fair union certification and bargaining process.
How do we know that the FCC and pension funds will act?
The first answer is it us up to us—if we marshal enough power in numbers, the FCC and pension funds will act.
There are several recent examples of strategies similar to ours paying off.
This is the most recent one. 4,000 hotel workers just voted in August by 99 percent to ratify their first union contract. Hotel workers had pressured pension funds to help them come to a card check neutrality agreement.
The FCC has made several pro-worker decisions in recent years thanks to unions organizing workers to pressure them. In January, thanks to pressure from media unions, the FCC approved a new license application process for broadcast and radio that prioritized stations that offer local news programming. In May 2023, unions successfully convinced the FCC to not give priority to an anti-union company that was attempting to buy a local news broadcasting firm, successfully scuttling the proposed sale.
What To Do Next?
- Submit your photo quote.
- Help us get others to submit photo quotes, by both figuring out who you know who hasn’t submitted photo quotes yet and reaching out directly, and by stepping up in the group chat and explaining in detail your decision to submit a photo quote.
- Help connect us to new people who want to join the fight! We still want new people to fill out the survey. We also have our wage petition.
- Reach out to an organizer at [email protected].