WHY ARE THOUSANDS OF UC EMPLOYEES UNIONIZING WITH UAW?

The University of California is a world-class institution because of the hard work of over 200,000 dedicated employees. UC has evolved over decades to be a force for change in California and beyond, through organizing and advocacy by staff, academic employees,faculty, and students who have fought for policy to expand higher education and make it accessible to all.

While many staff love the work we do, thousands of us still lack a collective voice and a seat at the bargaining table to be able to advance our jobs and the mission of the university. We are also seeing a growing number of politically-motivated attacks on higher education systems. These attacks limit the resources that support our work and arbitrarily restrict our ability to make that work accessible to all.

We are building on the traditions of organizers at UC who have refused to stay passive while our pay, benefits and other terms succumb to downward pressure. Every new group of workers who organize can strengthen and bargain for new improvements to our jobs and livelihoods. Every worker who joins our union with meaningful rights builds a broader movement of advocates for a higher education system that works for everyone.

Collective Bargaining: Without a union, our terms and conditions are determined unilaterally by a relatively small number of UC administrators (some of whom are not deeply familiar with the work we do every day). By unionizing, we gain a far stronger voice to collectively make improvements to wages, benefits and terms and conditions of employment at UC through a legally binding collective bargaining agreement.  Here are some of the issues unionized staff are working to improve:

Why should the remaining non-union UC employees have vastly different working conditions and power to address these issues? We don’t have to if unrepresented employee can be part of UAW and advance our rights and benefits together.

Fair Compensation

A recent report by the Council of UC Staff Assemblies (CUCSA) showed that staff who are not in unions have come in last place for the total increase in income. Non-union staff have fallen 10-37% behind, as shown in the graph below. In their recent UC-UAW contract, UC Professionals won a minimum of 27.8% wage increases over the 4-year life of the agreement.

Non-unionized staff are last to be considered when it comes to State, System, and Campus budget priorities. Forming a union means gaining the power and rights to negotiate on equal terms with UC for guaranteed annual pay increases. 
The data could not be more clear about how unionizing affects staff pay increases. But the goals of unionization go beyond that. Learn more about other issues that can be addressed below.

JOB SECURITY

Whether you work in a contract or career position, forming a union means immediately gaining the ability to negotiate over layoffs and just cause protections for discipline and dismissal. This is especially important now, as threats from the federal government create uncertainty and non-union employees lack a seat at the bargaining table.

By unionizing, UAW members have won conversion of positions from contract to career, strong protections against unjust termination, and layoff protections such as increased notice and preferential rehire. UC-UAW staff also won an agreement that prevents UC from replacing their professional judgement with AI and requires that UC negotiate with staff over new technology in the workplace.

PATHWAYS FOR CAREER ADVANCEMENT

Without a union, promotion and reclassification processes are often opaque and inequitable, leading to unnecessarily high turnover among staff at UC. It is not uncommon for non-union staff to be denied promotions after years of performing work above their pay grade on the promise that it will be rewarded eventually. Meanwhile, contracts won by UAW-represented employees ensure that pay increases with experience and additional responsibility always means additional compensation. Additionally, unionized workers have won increased support for training and professional development. Investing in our skills and advancement benefits both employees and the institution.

Excessive working hours and overwork issues are widespread among UC employees. Without workload protections, we may find ourselves routinely working excessive hours without additional compensation. Staff who recently unionized with UAW won the right to a reasonable workload and a stipend for taking on additional duties and out-of-class work.

Just like our unionized colleagues at UC, all staff need the ability to set firm boundaries regarding the scope of our jobs and clear expectations that our availability is not at the full control of our managers.

PROTECTIONS FROM OVERWORK (WORK-LIFE BALANCE)

LEAVE AND PAID TIME OFF

Paid Time Off and Paid Leave benefits for non-union employees lag far behind unionized colleagues doing similar work. Many of us have to spend the minimal vacation days we do have during curtailment in order to not lose money at the end of the year. Non-union staff have far less vacation than the 24 days of PTO guaranteed annually in UAW contracts. 

In their recent contract, RPSP-UAW and SSAP-UAW staff won one new floating holiday per year that can be used any time (including during Winter Curtailment), three days of available sick leave for new employees, and a total of twelve months leave for new birth parents, including eight weeks guaranteed paid parental leave and six months childcaring leave regardless of FMLA eligibility.

Without healthcare benefits guaranteed in a contract, UC employees are often alarmed at the annual increases in premiums that can offset any wage increases we may or may not receive. But those of us without a contract can by electing a union join our UAW colleagues who won:

The plan that SSAPs and RPSPs won after unionizing with UAW is a significant achievement that we can build upon.

HEALTHCARE BENEFITS

RETIREMENT BENEFITS

The age of retirement for UC employees varies dramatically based on their ability to bargain collectively for improved benefits. Through collective bargaining, unionized workers at UC have greatly expanded access to the pension and strengthened the existing retirement plans so that staff can choose the one that best fits their career plans.

ACCESS TO REMOTE AND HYBRID WORK ARRANGEMENTS

There is an ongoing effort on many UC campuses to curtail or end remote work despite overwhelming staff opposition and ample data demonstrating the effectiveness of our teleworkforce. Many of us who have a hybrid or remote arrangement feel a strong need to guarantee a fair process for securing these arrangements. The high cost of living near UC campuses has led many staff to live far from our places of work, and without the ability to negotiate over hybrid and remote work, we could be forced out of our jobs as a result of return to office mandates. 

UC Professionals who recently unionized with UAW were able to move UC to rescind return to office mandates during collective bargaining. They also won unprecedented remote work protections which include:

  • The right to negotiate over impacts of flexible work policies

  • Fair standards for maintaining existing agreements, including informal, ad-hoc agreements between managers and staff

  • A clear, criteria-based procedure to change agreements and arbitrable protections against arbitrary,  capricious, and/or discriminatory RTO orders

  • The right to just processes for evaluating new, flexible work agreements

  • Assurance of fair disability accommodation procedures which may provide for remote/hybrid arrangements

  • First-of-its-kind layoff protections for staff more than 50 miles from their home campus and benefits for employees who cannot return to work if needed, including up to $3,000 to assist with moving expenses

  • And, these protections are enforceable through the grievance and arbitration process

PROTECTIONS FROM DISCRIMINATION, HARASSMENT, AND BULLYING

All workers at UC deserve a respectful work environment. UAW members at UC have won protections against discrimination, harassment, and all forms of abusive conduct that are fully enforceable by a neutral third party arbitrator, which ensure survivors’ careers are not jeopardized by reporting abusive behavior. Once protections are negotiated into the union contract, workers have real recourse to stop abusives of power through the union grievance process. For example, when Sandra Koch was discriminated against as a pregnant Postdoc at UCLA, she filed a union grievance and rallied the support of her coworkers. UCLA reinstated her, and her career is back on target; by the time Title IX would have investigated her situation, she would have lost her visa status and had to return to her home country. Read about Sandra’s experience in her own words. All UC employees can gain greater power to prevent discrimination and harassment by forming a union.

PROTECTING PUBLIC EDUCATION

UC Staff are joining with academic employee, faculty, student, and administrative allies to build an even stronger university system.  By unionizing, we are helping build a movement to expand life-saving research, better support our students, strengthen rights for all, including immigrant or other marginalized groups who are being targeted.

Thousands of UC-UAW members have organized to win the following: 

  • Access to a legal defense fund for UC international scholars facing sudden changes to their immigration status

  • A preliminary injunction blocking the Trump administration from withholding federal funds to coerce UC into adopting harmful policies and from violating employees’ First Amendment rights, among other significant protections.

  • The creation of the California Science and Health Research Bond Act (SB 895), which seeks to create the California Foundation for Science and Health Research to ensure that life-saving and economically vital scientific, medical, and environmental research continues in the state, even if the Trump Administration cuts or withholds Federal funds

The more workers who unionize at UC, the more power we all have to continue making progress in all our workplaces. Joining with colleagues in UAW is not merely a step towards improving our individual lives, it’s a stride towards elevating the entire University of California system to meet and set higher standards of employee wellbeing and institutional excellence.

What issues do you want to address?

If you are facing any workplace issues, schedule a meeting with a member of the organizing committee to talk about it. Add your voice to the conversation!