In the 10-campus University of California system, United Auto Workers Local 5810 representing postdoctoral scholars and academic researchers ratified a new five-year agreement with the University. Voting ended on Dec. 9 in a strike that began on Nov. 14.
Local 5810 has 12,000 of the 48,000 striking UC workers. The vote to ratify the tentative new contract that runs through Sept. 30, 2027, sets up a potential conflict with union graduate researchers, scholars and teaching assistants in UAW 2865 and Student Researchers United-UAW whose work stoppage continues.
In the meantime, the 36,000 UC strikers agreed to enter mediation with their employer on Dec. 8. “The University is pleased that the UAW has agreed to neutral private mediation so that we may resolve our differences and end the strike that has been impacting our students, faculty, and staff,” said Letitia Silas, executive director of systemwide labor relations. “We remain committed to securing a fair and reasonable contract with the union that honors the hard work of our valued graduate student employees. With the help of a neutral mediator, we hope to secure that agreement quickly.”
“Throughout the bargaining process, UC’s negotiators have consistently been unprepared and unserious, and have broken the law repeatedly. We feel that in order to make progress, it is time for somebody else to step in,” said Tarini Hardikar, a bargaining team member from UC Berkeley, in a statement. “Our goal has always been to make UC a more just, equitable place to work—a place where everyone, not just those with independent or generational wealth, can participate. We look forward to working with a professional mediator to resolve the issues still on the table. Until then, we remain on strike.”
UC employees at campuses are in high-rent California cities, such as Davis, Berkeley, Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco, have been struggling to pay their bills.
Adam A. Caparco, Ph.D., 30, is a postdoctoral scholar in nanoengineering at UC San Diego. “We’re really excited about this tentative agreement,” he said. “This contract addresses a lot of issues postdoctoral scholars face, including the high cost of living near UC campuses, winning more family-friendly benefits and job security for international workers. Personally, I’m most excited for the raise, as I will see around a $16,000 raise between now and next October with our new salary base and raise structure.”
The recently ratified agreement also benefits international postdoctoral scholars, who comprise two-thirds of this unit in the UC system, according to Caparco, by providing longer initial appointments.
“That will help a lot with the costs of visas and having to return to a home country for paperwork. For all workers, these longer appointments will also alleviate the anxiety around our lack of job security. We’re all really passionate about the work we do, and I think these are important steps to make sure our value to the university is reflected in our wages and work conditions.”
Postdoctoral scholars in Local 5810 will in part get pay raises of 20% or higher and $2,500 to $2,800 in annual child care subsidies over the course of the tentative contract. Academic researchers will receive eight weeks of parental and family leave paid at 100%, a bump from 70%.
Tanzil Chowdhury, 24, is a graduate student research assistant at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, and a bargaining team member for SRU-UAW. He tips his hat to Local 5810 for reaching a tentative agreement with UC, and seeks similar contract progress for the two bargaining units still in negotiations.
“I’m extremely proud of my postdoctoral scholar and academic researcher colleagues for coming to their historic tentative agreements,” Chowdhury said, “which address key concerns like greater appointment lengths and wage increases that address the cost of living. As a graduate student researcher, I believe this clears the way for us to arrive at similarly strong tentative agreements and hope the university is now willing to bargain with us seriously, which they have not been in recent weeks.”
Alejandra Domenzain is an academic researcher with UC Berkeley’s Labor Occupational Health Program. For her, employer accountability for the strike is central. “The tentative agreements show that UC can be held accountable for more livable wages and basic benefits,” Domenzain said. “It shouldn’t take a strike for UC to bargain fairly and offer a decent contract to its workers; their unfair labor practices forced a huge level of sacrifice and disruption. I will celebrate when all UC academic workers get the pay and support they deserve.”
Across the nation, non-UC academic workers are stopping work to win higher pay and better benefits. “I know other unionized postdoctoral scholars are looking at our wins in this contract campaign and using them as a launch point for their own negotiations,” said Caparco. In fact, more than 1,600 part-time, adjunct faculty members who are members of UAW Local 7902 at The New York City walked off the job on Nov. 17 for reasons similar to the UC union strikers.
Seth Sandronsky lives and works in Sacramento. He is a journalist and member of the Pacific Media Workers Guild. Email sethsandronsky@gmail.com.
From The Progressive Populist, January 1-15, 2023
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