PESs have been organizing with UAW for months because we have seen what our colleagues in other staff titles at UC have won by forming their unions with UAW and building strong, worker-led campaigns. When we learned about the petition filed by Teamsters 2010 to bring us into their existing clerical unit, we were concerned that no PESs we know of had been consulted or involved in this decision. We take the question about affiliation seriously, so we did some research. We reached out to Teamsters to try to learn more, and they told us they had no additional information to provide. We did some research on the two contracts (see our research here), and because of the strength of the UC-UAW staff contract, the opportunities in the near future to make even more improvements with thousands of our staff colleagues, and our commitment to building a union by and for Public Education Specialists, we decided to continue organizing with UAW. 

Back in 2024, many of us Public Education Specialists heard from colleagues in similar titles that they were forming a UC staff union with UAW. Their success inspired us to start talking with fellow Public Education Specialists about joining a union so we could secure yearly raises, protections for hybrid/flex work, affordable healthcare, and more. After UC-UAW staff won their amazing contract in early 2026, PESs began signing cards to join UAW. We soon learned that Teamsters 2010 filed a petition to accrete us into their union and reached out to learn more information. As far as we can tell, Teamsters filed their petition without consulting any Public Education Specialists. We - a group of PESs organizing to join a union - carefully considered both UAW and Teamsters contracts, and ultimately decided that the UAW contract was better for our title. We have been organizing to demonstrate that we, the workers, wanted to join UAW. Teamsters are now inundating PES titles with calls and emails too - hence the barrage of messages. We encourage all PESs to read our contract comparison and join hundreds of PESs who have already signed UAW cards!

We think the facts speak for themselves here. UC workers won their first UAW contract in 2001. Most recently, 12,000 UC-UAW staff secured enforceable hybrid/flex work, guaranteed yearly raises, and strong layoff protections. Overall, UAW is 60,000 workers strong at UC. 

No - unfortunately this is one of several pieces of misinformation coming from the Teamsters.  The document they are quoting has nothing to do with us and pertains to different UAW-represented workers.  The truth is this: if we successfully organize with UAW, and choose to negotiate that we're covered by all of its contract terms, the UAW contract includes a provision that allows us to bargain improvements to the step system in early 2027, with all 12,000 UAW-represented staff. 

No, all UAW unionized staff will see their healthcare premiums frozen at the 2025 rate through 2026, and in 2027, will see caps of 5% and 7.5% for Kaiser and UC Blue & Gold, respectively. See the UAW staff vs. Teamsters contract comparison here.

Teamsters’ messaging has again been misleading. Teamsters touts higher raises because their contract lasts one year longer than UAW’s, and their calculation is based on average step increase rather than minimum step increase. We believe UAW’s shorter contract would be advantageous for PESs because it allows us to bargain over our needs sooner. UC-UAW staff are also bargaining over a new step system in January of 2027, which means we could win additional raises and help create equitable PES steps by joining UAW. Learn more about the raises in both contracts in our UAW staff vs. Teamsters contract comparison.

Just to be clear: all UC staff were already going to get raises (unrepresented workers got a minimum of 4% raises in July), and unionizing will secure raises on top of that. But having a strong union is about more than just one-time raises. We chose to organize with UAW because they support worker-led organizing and we believe UC-UAW staff won a contract that better meets our needs than the Teamsters contract.

The short answer is no.

PES will see wage increases in the coming months regardless of the union we join, but we stand to win even more by joining UAW. We believe our union will be stronger and more effective with a majority of PESs supporting and participating in the process (plus UAW staff are actually getting a larger 2027 raise than Teamsters).

Additionally, unrepresented staff raises this year were a direct result of the massive mobilization of 12,000 UC-UAW staff this year- they’re not something UC admin is giving us out of the goodness of their hearts. 

Again, we respect Teamsters' right to their perspective, but are concerned that they are pushing out a lot of misinformation here. Both contracts have protections for laid off employees like severance, right to recall/preferential rehire, and layoffs based on seniority (see our contract comparison for specifics). The UAW contract also has career conversion for contract employees, which the teamsters agreement does not.