Catherine Hamilton 2-2-23
Rank-and-file members of several United Auto Workers unions expressed dissatisfaction with issues of marginalization, bullying and suppression they said they experienced during internal negotiations to ratify a new contract with the University of California. On Dec. 23, UAW Local 2865 and Student Researchers United-UAW separately ended their nearly six-week long strikes and ratified new contracts with the UC, with nearly 62% and 69% of rank-and-file members voting yes on the agreements, respectively. Agreements for all three unions, as UAW Local 5810 reached an agreement Dec. 9, included pay increases, increased childcare benefits and anti-harassment clauses. But multiple units at UC Santa Cruz, UC Merced and UC Santa Barbara rejected their proposals by large margins, voicing discontent with their bargaining team members’ decisions to concede on lower wages and cut representative clauses.
Despite having opportunities to speak throughout the negotiation process, many rank-and-file members felt their representatives were not listening to their concerns, said Adam Moore, a pathobiology doctoral candidate at UC Davis and member of UAW Local 2865 and SRU-UAW. Internal bargaining sessions to decide on proposals were open to all members of the unions, and a caucus was held after for members to express desires, support and concerns to the bargaining units, he said. “It seemed like it didn’t matter how many times or how many different people shared their really personal and sometimes traumatic stories,” Moore said. “My impression was that their minds had already been made up, and caucus was just a space for us to talk to ourselves.”
Janna Haider, a history doctoral student at UCSB and member of the UAW Local 2865 bargaining team, said she believed the contract would not make enough changes to ease the rent burden at her campus. She added that she was against many decisions ultimately made by the bargaining team and organized people to vote no against the contract. Even before the strike began, Haider said union meetings felt more like presentations from the bargaining team on decisions already made rather than a collaborative space to discuss. This was especially felt in the setup of the strike itself, she added.
“The statewide UAW infrastructure insisted on 20 hours a week (of picket duties) … (and) really wanted to prioritize the in-person picket line, as if standing around outside is the thing that indicates how strong the strike is,” she said. “Santa Barbara was the only campus that had an infrastructure for an online picket for workers who are disabled (or) who are parents who live far away from campus.”
Nick Geiser, a physics doctoral student and member of the SRU-UAW bargaining team, said in an emailed statement that the union allowed opportunities for democratic input through surveys, votes and open bargaining sessions. At UCLA, bargaining team members spoke directly with their peers, held collaborative discussions and engaged rank-and-file members throughout the process, he said, adding that the units recognize there is still work to be done.
“We of course agree that the fight against rent burden is not over, and as a union we are taking our political fight for housing justice to the state legislature in Sacramento while gearing up for our next round of negotiations in 2025,” he said in the emailed statement. However, Haider said there was heavy pressure from many members of the bargaining team to finish negotiations quickly, resulting in a final contract that did not immediately raise wages and instead forced all workers to wait until the spring to receive new levels of pay...
Full story at https://dailybruin.com/2023/02/02/a-month-after-new-contract-uaw-members-concerns-about-bargaining-process-persist.
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