Use this Daily Californian tool for updates from bargaining units
Cameron FoziSanjana FernandoNibras SulimanArfa Momin
November 24, 2022 (dailycal-projects.netlify.app)
Luke Jensen | Staff
Editor’s note: The projects department staff of The Daily Californian will update this article as contract negotiations between the UC system and the bargaining units continue. All information regarding tentative agreements and contracts proposals is as of press time, which is listed for each bargaining unit.
Update 11/29/2022: UAW Local 5810 and the UC system reached tentative contract agreements for academic researchers and postdoctoral scholars the night of Nov. 28, 2022. Until union membership ratifies the contract agreements, academic researchers and postdoctoral scholars are on strike “in sympathy” with the units still at the bargaining table: student researchers and academic student employees.
Following a week of voting, four bargaining units of UAW — which collectively represent more than 40,000 academic student employees, academic researchers, postdoctoral researchers and student researchers across the UC system — announced a historic authorization to strike.
The systemwide strike began Nov. 14, and is ongoing as of press time.
In the months leading up to the strike, the UC system and each of the four bargaining units had engaged in separate contract negotiations. Each negotiation between the UC system and a bargaining unit consists of more than 20 articles concerning workplace policies for wages, layoffs, anti-bullying and much more.
While the UC system and the bargaining units have reached tentative agreements for many portions of their new contracts, negotiation continues for others. In light of this, the UAW bargaining units and the UC system continue to set forth proposals for their contracts.
The negotiation processes also contain appendices and side letters — often clarifying the terms of other parts of a contract. Proposals and tentative agreements for appendices and side letters are included in this article.
As the UC system and the unions negotiate, they employ a variety of bargaining techniques. Often, parties will compile proposals into packages, where the bargaining teams have the opportunity to tentatively agree upon multiple articles at a time. Many of these proposal packages have allowed unions and the UC system to keep language from their current contracts.
However, the proposal history for some articles is less straightforward — with some having more than 15 proposals. Despite lengthy negotiations, parties have also moved to wipe entire portions of their contracts by withdrawing them.
This Daily Californian tool follows all four negotiations as they reach tentative agreements on parts of their contracts. It will link the history of proposals if parties have yet to come to an agreement. Otherwise, the tool will contain a link to the tentative agreement.
Academic student employees
Academic student employees, or ASEs, are represented by UAW Local 2865. ASEs consist of more than 19,000 tutors, readers, graduate student instructors and teaching assistants at the UC system, according to the UAW Local 2865’s website.
The UAW Local 2865’s last contract with the UC system was originally due to expire June 30, 2022. That contract — which would have prohibited the union’s recent strike authorization — was only extended to Oct. 1, 2022.
As of Dec. 2, 2022 at 12:56 p.m., 32 tentative agreements were met between the UC system and the UAW Local 2865.
Academic researchers
Academic researchers, or ARs, are represented by UAW Local 5810, the union that also represents postdocs. ARs in the union consist of nearly 5,000 project scientists, specialists, professional researchers and coordinators of public programs at the UC system, according to the UAW Local 5810 website.
The UAW Local 5810’s last AR contract with the UC system was originally due to expire Sept. 30, 2022. That contract — which prohibits strike authorizations — was only extended to Oct. 31, 2022.
As of Nov. 29, 2022 at 12:46 p.m., 40 tentative agreements were met between the UC system and the UAW Local 5180 on ARs’ upcoming contract. While a tentative agreement on the contract has been reached, it has yet to be ratified by the union’s membership.
Postdoctoral researchers
Postdoctoral researchers, or postdocs, have completed a doctorate and use their appointments in the UC system to advance their professional interests with additional research and training. Like academic researchers, postdocs are represented by the UAW Local 5810. According to its website, the UAW Local 5810 represents more than 6,000 postdocs across the UC system.
The current postdoc contact between the UC system and the union was originally slated to be in effect until Sept. 30, 2020. Since negotiations for their next contract are ongoing, their current contract — which bars the union from authorizing strikes that interfere with UC operations — has been extended, but only to Oct. 31, 2022.
As of Nov. 29, 2022 at 7:16 p.m., 51 tentative agreements were met between the UC system and the UAW Local 5180 on postdocs’ upcoming contract. While a tentative agreement on the contract has been reached, it has yet to be ratified by the union’s membership.
Student researchers
Student researchers, or SRs, are students employed to conduct research at the UC system. They are represented by Student Researchers United, or SRU-UAW. Like the UAW Local 5810 and the UAW Local 2865, SRU-UAW is also unionized with the United Auto Workers, or UAW.
The UC system agreed to recognize the SRU-UAW on Dec. 8, 2021. Once the parties come to an agreement, this will be the first contract of its kind between the SRU-UAW and the UC system.
As of Dec. 2, 2022 at 1:51 a.m., 32 tentative agreements were met between the UC system and the SRU-UAW.
The tool above does not list the proposal histories for articles, side letters or appendices that have reached a tentative agreement. However, UAW bargaining units maintain Google Sheets that track contract negotiations for ASEs, ARs, postdocs and SRs.
Cameron Fozi is the projects editor. Contact him at cfozi@dailycal.org, and follow him on Twitter at @cmrnfzi.
Sanjana Fernando is a projects developer. Contact them at sfernando@dailycal.org, and follow them on Twitter at @sjayfern.
Nibras Suliman is a projects developer. Contact her at nsuliman@dailycal.org, and follow her on Twitter at @NibrasSuliman.
Arfa Momin is a projects developer. Contact her at amomin@dailycal.org, and follow her on Twitter at @arfamomin.
About this story
This project was developed by the Projects Department at The Daily Californian.
Information for this project come from four Google Sheets tracking the bargaining process between the UC system and various unions.
Questions, comments or corrections? Email projects@dailycal.org.
Code, data and text are open-source on GitHub.
