UC Academic Workers’ historic unfair labor practice strike begins Monday morning at 8 AM! UC’s ongoing unlawful behavior continues to obstruct Academic Student Employees, Academic Researchers, Postdocs and Student Researchers from reaching agreements on fair contracts, and their actions at the bargaining table this week showed no change.
In this email:
- LA Times editorial calling out UC’s failure to negotiate fair contracts (Twitter share version, PDF version)
- New international & immigrant worker FAQ
- Sign up for strike pay: click here for times and locations on your campus, as well as remote sign up for workers who do not live near a UC campus and workers who have access needs that prevent them from attending in-person events
- Sign up for picket shifts here
- Bargaining updates
In an editorial earlier this week, the LA Times powerfully lays out the essential role that Academic Workers play at UC. Sadly, UC Administration doesn’t appear to feel the same. It is absolutely imperative that all workers who are able join the picket line on Monday, ideally for the whole day. 48,000 UC Academic Workers visibly withholding their labor on day 1 of the strike will send a shockwave through the UC system. Let’s make it happen!
Sign up for Strike Pay
Please click here to get more information about where and when you can sign up for strike pay at your campus, as well as remote sign up for workers who do not live near a UC campus and workers who have access needs that prevent them from attending in-person events. If there are no more times/locations available at your campus, you can sign up on the picket line on Monday!
Picket Locations and Times
Picket locations, times and sign-up forms for your campus can be found here. Make sure to sign up for shifts on the form for your campus! If your work is fully remote and you are not near a UC campus, or if you have access needs that prevent you from attending in-person events, please indicate this on the form.
Bargaining Updates
The UAW Bargaining Teams continue to meet with UC around the clock to push them to make meaningful progress. Yesterday, each bargaining team chose one representative to meet with UC in the first-ever coordinated session. Unfortunately, UC’s comments during bargaining, as well as their public comments about the impending strike, do not give cause for optimism.
In ASE bargaining, UC’s negotiators said that cost of living was not an important factor to UC when setting wages. In memos to other UC employees, UC referred to our wage demands as ‘unreasonable’ and ‘exorbitant’ – despite the fact that our compensation proposals for all units amount to less than 3% of the UC budget.
Please read on for a *brief* summary of what happened in this week’s bargaining sessions (you can click here for more detailed info on the latest proposals for each unit).
Upcoming Bargaining Dates (note: additional dates may be added):
- Academic Researchers – Friday, 11/18 – RSVP here
- Academic Student Employees Tuesday, 11/15 – RSVP here
- Postdocs – Wednesday, 11/16 – RSVP here
- Student Researchers Thursday, 11/17 – RSVP here
Academic Researchers
The University and the Union met in a last-minute session yesterday to make progress on Grievance and Arbitration and Compensation. Unfortunately, the University did not agree to our dispute resolution process. We are much closer now, and are hopeful that further progress will be made at future sessions.
Academic Student Employees
This week, the University finally ceded to ASEs’ demand that it institute a unified system-wide step system based on experience. This proposal marks major progress in ASEs’ fight for fair compensation. Nonetheless, the base pay falls far below our bargaining demands. ASEs were also able to agree to a grievance and arbitration article this week, and got closer to agreement on workload and improved rights for undergraduate workers in Berkeley EECS and San Diego Biology.
Postdocs
Postdocs discussed benefits, leaves, and childcare with the University this week. While we’re close to reaching an agreement on benefits that improves benefits coverage for Postdocs, the University is still insisting that first-year Postdocs have access to fewer weeks of leave than other Academic Workers.
Student Researchers
This week Student Researchers met with the University and made proposals on Appointment Security and Parking and Transit. Job security and improved public transit are major priorities for Student Researchers. Further, for the first time since bargaining began, the University said that they will end their attempts to roll back the hard-fought union recognition rights that GSRs won just last year.
Moreover, the University has failed to directly remedy or offer solutions to remedy its unfair labor practices that are impeding bargaining. The strike is a reaction to this unlawful behavior blocking us from getting fair contracts.
In solidarity,
UAW 5810 Academic Researcher Bargaining Team
UAW 2865 Academic Student Employee Bargaining Team
UAW 5810 Postdoc Bargaining Team
SRU-UAW Student Researcher Bargaining Team