The two UAW local unions that reached a tentative settlement with UC on Friday have released a more detailed summary of the proposed contract than appeared in earlier news accounts. We reproduce some of it below:
On December 16th, the Academic Student Employee [ASE] & Student Researcher bargaining teams have voted to tentatively agree to UC’s mediated proposals and to recommend them to the membership for a ratification vote...
After ten months of bargaining and five weeks of striking, workers have finally secured agreements that contain record-setting wage increases – the largest-ever increases for any unionized higher-education workers. If ratified, this contract would make us the highest paid graduate student workers at any public university in the country.
The agreements also contain breakthroughs in new areas like the first-ever contractual transit benefits at UC, the first-ever inclusion of NRST [nonresident supplemental tuition] and dependent healthcare after years of demanding both, and industry-standard-setting protections against abusive conduct.
Highlights from the Tentative Agreement are as follows:
Wages: ...2023 and 2024 increases, with 55-80% increases for ASEs and 25-80% increases for GSRs [Graduate Student Researchers] by 2024.
Childcare: A 27% increase to childcare subsidies, increasing from $1,100/quarter ($1,650/semester) to $1,350/quarter ($2,025/semester) in Winter 2023; to $1,400/quarter ($2,100/semester) in 2024.
Dependent Healthcare: first-ever remission of dependent healthcare through UC academic worker contracts, limited to single-parents or single-income households that fall above the free Medi-Cal coverage threshold...
Paid Leave and Time Off: 8 weeks of fully paid parental leave for birthing and non-birthing parents, 8 weeks of disability or medical related leave, and additional guaranteed paid time off for GSRs. This is up from 6 weeks for birthing parents and 4 weeks for non-birthing parents and all other cases.
Fee Remission: A new waiver of 100% of all campus fees, which can be up to $1,617 per year; Codifying the 3-year post-candidacy NRST waiver in the contract, so that it cannot be threatened or taken away. This would be the first ever NRST-related contract language, and would make this waiver enforceable through our grievance procedure.
Immigration: Protections for re-employment related to work authorization issues and guaranteed immigration-related leaves.
Non-Discrimination and Anti-Bullying: First-ever protections from discrimination and harassment at work for GSRs with guaranteed interim measures; industry standard-setting protections from bullying and abusive conduct in the workplace, also with guaranteed interim measures while investigations are ongoing...
Access Needs: First-ever contractual protections to improve accessibility for GSRs and improved rights for meeting ASEs’ access needs via interim accommodations and a worker committee to establish proactive accessibility measures, including centralized funding...
Health and Safety and Workers Compensation: GSRs now have protections against unhealthy or unsafe work environments, the right to refuse unsafe work, and the right to benefit from Workers Compensation; ASEs maintained their strong rights to a healthy and safe workplace.
Parking and Transit: First-ever guaranteed transit benefits in the contract, including a commitment from UC to provide fully-funded transit passes at all campuses, and transit benefits of up to $50/month at campuses that do not yet have passes.
Appointment Security: GSRs have guaranteed appointments that cannot be taken away, and ASEs maintained their strong appointment security rights.
Job Security: GSRs would have protections from unjust discipline and layoffs for the first time, and ASEs maintained their strong job security protections.
Workload: ASEs maintained strong workload protections and GSRs won protections from work beyond their appointments and an expedited process to resolve workload disputes.
Recognition and Classifications: Every campus can now use higher paid TA job titles, meaning more opportunities for higher salaries. GSRs, Fellows and Trainees maintained their hard-fought recognition agreement. Old ASE misclassifications are no longer permitted.
Union Rights: Improved union security with a streamlined process for joining the union during onboarding processes
Grievance and Arbitration: An improved process to address the University’s procedural objections to grievances for ASEs and the first-ever enforceable recourse for GSRs in workplace disputes.
Full item with links to explainers at https://www.fairucnow.org/ta-summary/.
Will the proposed contract be ratified? There are definitely some folks grumbling about the pay component on Twitter. However, the local unions seem to be actively promoting the deal. There is always the danger of raising expectations beyond the bargaining possibilities available. On the other hand, the fact that the postdocs and researchers have already concluded and ratified their deal with UC sets a precedent. Apparently, most strikers have continued to receive pay, thanks in part to UC's clunky payroll system. But presumably, UC will eventually figure out how to turn off its payroll machine. And, we are now in a dead period - intersession - so a contract rejection would likely not result in anything new anytime soon. All of these considerations suggest that ratification is likely.
We also have noted that there was a flurry of interest at the Regents about purchasing or building apartment houses near campuses that could be rented at below-market rates, thus directly addressing the high costs of housing at particular campuses.* That discussion was not explicitly related to the strike - but it does suggest a possible longer-term strategy for dealing with living costs.
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*http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2022/12/strike-news-additional-developments_11.html; http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2022/11/watch-regents-afternoon-meeting-of-nov.html.
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https://ia601402.us.archive.org/25/items/big-ten/contract%20components.mp3
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