After a powerful week and a half of our historic strike, UC has finally made a serious offer to Postdocs that addresses major concerns. Some highlights from UC’s package proposal tonight are:
- Salary: Minimum salary scale increase of 16% by October 2023 (8% in April 2023, 7.5% in October 2023) Between experience-based steps and scale increases, the current lowest paid Postdocs would see a 23% salary increase (more than $12,000 by October 2023). Over the course of 5 years as a Postdoc at UC, the current lowest paid Postdoc would see a 55% salary increase,
- Parental and Family Leave: expanding 100% paid family and parental leave to 8 weeks (up from the current 4 weeks) for ALL Postdocs, including first-year Postdocs,
- Public Transit: a monthly pre-tax transportation benefit, e-bike discounts, and a commitment to phase in free transit passes over time,
- Appointment length: after months of claiming it was not possible, UC agreed to implement two-year appointment lengths for incoming Postdocs.
However, appointment security is a critical component of Postdoc jobs, and UC’s proposal isn’t yet what it needs to be:
- Salary – UC’s proposal is serious, and the increases reflect cost of living. However, postdocs are still fighting for salary scales that start higher,
- Appointment length – despite UC’s concession that two-year appointments are in fact possible, their current proposal contains too many carve outs for dismissal within the first year. Postdocs deserve better than this.
For wages, their latest proposal reflects our core cross-unit bargaining demands to address the cost of living:
- A big increase to the base wage that addresses the cost of living in California,
- Experience-based step increases so pay increases with additional years of work experience,
- Annual increases in the subsequent years of the contract, on all of the money the University pays us.
Back to the picket line on Monday!
To show the University we are committed to winning our demands for all Academic Workers at UC, it is essential that everyone turns out to the picket line and rallies on Monday. Sign up for picket shifts here.
The Postdocs’ offer today marks more to come. After Academic Student Employees and Student Researchers both made wages proposals over the last week, the ball is in the University’s court to respond. Academic Researchers and Postdocs are preparing counter proposals to send to the University next week on compensation.
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