UAW Local 5810

Bargaining Update 10/6: UC’s (Very Bad) Compensation Proposal — How to Support Right Now

uaw5810 — Wed, 06 Oct 2021 19:30:02 +0000

We met UC at the bargaining table again yesterday, in the first session since we mutually decided to extend our contract until November 15. We passed proposals on Personal Time Off, Sick Leave, Individual Development Plans, Progress Assessments, Travel Reimbursement, and Health and Safety. See all UAW and UC proposals here.

After 13 bargaining sessions, UC finally passed a salary package proposal, which failed (in a big way) to address the critical issues of Postdoc compensation and cost of living It included:

Lower annual increases than the current NIH-linked scale
Up to 92% increases in healthcare costs and also parking rate increases
No provisions to address rent burden, access to campus housing, childcare costs, or relocation expenses

Here are two things you can do right now to help Postdocs win a great contract:

1. Take the Housing/Cost of Living Survey!
Please take a few minutes to fill out this survey about the factors impacting your cost of living including housing, relocation costs, childcare, and transportation. Your response will provide important data to push back against UC’s regressive proposals.

Take the Cost of Living Survey

2. Sign the open letter to UC Administration!
The open letter is closing soon! We will be presenting the signed letter at meetings with campus deans in the coming weeks. Add your name to tell UC leadership that our contract demands are essential to Postdocs winning a fair contract, and that recognition of Student Researchers United is important to all Postdocs.

Sign the Open Letter to UC Admin

Our next bargaining session is scheduled for October 13. Want to do even more to support winning a great contract? Click here to get involved with bargaining!

In solidarity,
Postdoc Bargaining Team and Alternates

Sarah Arveson, UC Berkeley
Gilbert Bernstein, UC Berkeley
Chris Hart, UC Davis
Adam Schneider, UC Irvine
Zachary Zeidler, UC Los Angeles
Lejla Medzikovic, UC Los Angeles
Brad Barker, UC Merced
Ingrid Padilla Espinosa, UC Merced
Tyler Bell, UC San Diego
Adam Caparco, UC San Diego
Jade Moore, UC San Francisco
Putu Ustriyana, UC San Francisco
Caitlin Taylor, UC Santa Barbara
Heda Agic, UC Santa Barbara
Jacob Porter, UC Santa Cruz
Jasmeet Dhaliwal, UC Santa Cruz

Follow your union on Twitter @UAW5810!

The post Bargaining Update 10/6: UC’s (Very Bad) Compensation Proposal — How to Support Right Now appeared first on UAW Local 5810.

Bargaining Update 9/27: Please fill out our new Cost of Living survey!

uaw5810 — Tue, 28 Sep 2021 17:00:22 +0000

We met with UC at the table for another 4-hour session yesterday. Once again, UC was not prepared with responses to the majority of our proposals. In over 13 bargaining sessions — totaling more than 30 hours of negotiating — UC hasn’t passed any Compensation proposals, nor has UC offered responses to our proposals on Housing, Childcare, Nondiscrimination, Respectful Work Environment (anti-bullying), Leaves of Absence, and many others. This is unacceptable. To see all the Union and UC proposals, see our proposal tracker.

With our contract set to expire in 3 days, UC proposed a contract extension to allow more time for their team to prepare proposals. Therefore, we mutually agreed to extend the contract for 6 weeks to November 15. Our next session will be Tuesday, October 5.

NEW: Cost of Living Survey – Please fill it out!
In order to achieve our goal of winning a comprehensive compensation package that accurately reflects the value of Postdoc research and the cost of living near UC campuses, it is important to know the major expenses that Postdocs face such as housing, relocation costs, childcare and transportation. Please take a few minutes to fill out this survey that will help inform our union’s bargaining proposals on these topics!

Take the Cost of Living Survey

And if you have not done so yet, please take a minute now to add your name to this open letter to UC leadership! More signatures will make the case that our contract demands and recognition of Student Researchers United are important to all Postdocs. If you’ve already signed, click here to get more involved!

In solidarity,
Postdoc Bargaining Team and Alternates

Follow your union on Twitter @UAW5810!

The post Bargaining Update 9/27: Please fill out our new Cost of Living survey! appeared first on UAW Local 5810.

Bargaining Update 9/21: 1 Step Forward, 2 Steps Back? Tell UC to support postdocs!

uaw5810 — Wed, 22 Sep 2021 20:00:35 +0000

Yesterday, we had another 4-hour session at the bargaining table. We made progress in some areas but were also struck by the University’s lack of interest in moving forward on many of our priority issues.

We held our overall position of strengthening worker protections through the Grievance and Arbitration, Layoff, Job Titles and Classifications, Waiver, and Past Practice.
The University proposed changes to the Paid Time Off and Sick Leave articles related to changes for part-time postdoc employees.
The University dropped their initial proposal on Job Abandonment that would have allowed UC to fire postdocs without just cause (Victory!).
The University rejected our proposal for international postdoc support in its entirety, but we are not giving up — we are a union of predominantly international scholars who face extraordinary barriers just to conduct our work.
The University violated the law by refusing to bargain with us over our anti-bullying language that we proposed in the Respectful Work Environment article. They said that they won’t be proposing an article until after they create a policy, when we’re at the negotiations table and ready to bargain over deeply-felt bullying issues.

To show UC administrators that we need a contract that reflects our value to UC research, please take a minute now to add your name to this open letter to UC leadership! More signatures will make the case that our contract demands and recognition of Student Researchers United are important to all Postdocs. If you’ve already signed, click here to get more involved!

Sign the letter to UC Administration to help win a great Postdoc Contract!

We will be back at the bargaining table on Monday, 9/27 and hope that UC will come with meaningful considerations of our previously passed proposals. All the proposals we passed and UC’s proposals can be found in our proposal tracker.

FYI: Contract Expiration
If Postdocs and UC don’t reach an agreement by September 30, we can either mutually agree to extend our contract or it will expire. If it expires, not a lot will change for Postdocs because the University must maintain the “status quo”. Our minimum salary scale is still tied to NIH rates + 2 steps, so our raises will continue, both anniversary raises and annual cost-of-living increases, and our rights and benefits will remain in place. We will still be able to enforce our rights under the contract, albeit by different methods: if the contract expires, UC is not obligated to take grievance cases to arbitration but we can still seek recourse through the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) and via direct action. Whatever we decide, we need to keep standing together to win these important improvements.

In solidarity,
Postdoc Bargaining Team and Alternates

Follow your union on Twitter @UAW5810!

The post Bargaining Update 9/21: 1 Step Forward, 2 Steps Back? Tell UC to support postdocs! appeared first on UAW Local 5810.

Postdoc Bargaining Update 9/16: Sign letter to UC and Support Green Transit 🚲 🚋

uaw5810 — Thu, 16 Sep 2021 19:30:01 +0000

We doubled up on bargaining sessions this week and met UC at the table for a two-hour session on Wednesday! To kick things off the Postdoc bargaining team offered a proposal on Parking & Transportation that included campus-specific alternative transportation options to ensure all Postdocs have equitable access to low or zero emissions commuting choices.

UC passed proposals on Union Access and Rights and Union Security. We’re getting closer to agreement on Union Access and Rights, but UC again arrived without proposals on many important topics such as Compensation, Housing, Nondiscrimination, Childcare Support, Leaves of Absence, and many others. UC continues to prioritize limiting our rights, while we are committed to adding and strengthening Postdoc rights through our contract. All the proposals we passed and UC’s proposals can be found in our proposal tracker. Our next session will be September 21.

If you have not done so yet, please take a minute now to add your name to this open letter to UC leadership! More signatures will make the case that our contract demands and recognition of Student Researchers United are important to all Postdocs. If you’ve already signed, click here to get more involved!

Sign the letter to UC Administration to help win a great Postdoc Contract!

In solidarity,
Postdoc Bargaining Team and Alternates

Follow your union on Twitter @UAW5810!

The post Postdoc Bargaining Update 9/16: Sign letter to UC and Support Green Transit 🚲 🚋 appeared first on UAW Local 5810.

Postdoc Bargaining Update 9/14: Stop UC’s stalling and sign the open letter!

uaw5810 — Tue, 14 Sep 2021 21:00:15 +0000

We were back at the bargaining table with UC yesterday for a 3-hour session. We passed many proposals and reached agreement on several articles. UC’s team is still stalling so it’s critical that all Postdocs sign this open letter calling on UC leadership to bargain a fair contract that improves Postdoc compensation, equity and inclusion policies, job security, and green transportation options. Please take a minute now to add your name!

Sign the letter to UC Administration to help win a great Postdoc Contract!

In yesterday’s bargaining session, we presented proposals which include:

Allowing Personal Time Off to roll over from one year to the next and be paid out at the end of the appointment
Improvements to healthcare coverage for mental health, telehealth, acupuncture, fertility care, and removing eligibility barriers to gender-affirming care, and
Requiring UC to provide at least 90 days’ notice for a layoff due to loss of funding, which is especially important for international Postdocs on visas.

We made counterproposals on job security and union rights and signed tentative agreements on several articles where both sides agreed to maintain the current contract language. You can read all the proposals we passed and UC’s proposals in our proposal tracker.

Regarding UC’s bargaining team, it was the same story: no serious proposals. Their counterproposal on Parking and Transportation would increase parking rates by as much as 25% while paying lip-service to green transportation options. While we proposed Postdocs getting free transit passes to help achieve UC’s goal of carbon neutrality, UC proposed merely “encouraging” us to take public transportation “when available.” Uhhhh no — we need a real transit benefit! UC’s team also floated some vague ideas about Postdoc compensation but (once again) they had no actual salary proposal prepared for us to consider so.… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Our next session will be Wednesday 9/15.

Member participation is critical to winning a strong contract. The bargaining committee holds weekly meetings that are open to all Postdoc members. There are lots of ways to get involved to fight for issues you’re passionate about! Click here to get involved and click here to sign the open letter!

In solidarity,
Postdoc Bargaining Team and Alternates

Follow your union on Twitter @UAW5810!

The post Postdoc Bargaining Update 9/14: Stop UC’s stalling and sign the open letter! appeared first on UAW Local 5810.

Postdoc Bargaining Update 9/10: ✍️ SIGN OUR LETTER TO UC ADMIN!!

uaw5810 — Fri, 10 Sep 2021 18:15:36 +0000

Annnnnnd we’re back! After a two-week hiatus (due to UC refusing to meet) we were back yesterday at the virtual bargaining table. All the details are here but first, please take a moment to sign this open letter calling on UC leadership to:

Improve Postdoc compensation, equity and inclusion policies, job security, and green transportation options
End delays and start bargaining with Student Researchers United, the union democratically chosen by UC graduate student researchers

Sign the letter to UC Administration to help win a great Postdoc Contract!

More signatures will make the case that these are important demands that all Postdocs stand behind, so please add your name today!

In yesterday’s bargaining session, we presented a group of proposals designed to promote equity/inclusion and job security, two key issues for these negotiations, both of which need major improvement to make UC a better research environment. Our proposals included:

Increased rights for international scholars including UC covering all visa fees, time off for visa appointments, visa choice, and the ability to apply for UC sponsorship of green cards;
Guaranteeing a respectful work environment by prohibiting abusive conduct and bullying and establishing a concrete resolution process.
Peer-led trainings to stop sexual harassment, developed jointly by the union and UC, where Postdocs teach each other concrete skills for creating safer workplaces, interrupting harassment, and getting support
Expansion of the President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program which has a strong track record of improving diversity in faculty hiring, and
Increased job security via longer guaranteed appointments

UC’s counterproposals were few in number and mostly a snoozefest (few changes from current contract language). One exception was UC’s response to Union Access and Rights that made progress toward our goal that all new Postdocs get a union orientation on their rights and benefits within their first month at work.

You can read all the proposals we passed and UC’s proposals in our proposal tracker. We have two sessions scheduled next week on Monday 9/13 and Wednesday 9/15. We have now passed the majority of our initial proposals but UC has yet to make significant responses.

In solidarity,

Postdoc Bargaining Team and Alternates
Sarah Arveson, UC Berkeley
Gilbert Bernstein, UC Berkeley
Chris Hart, UC Davis
Adam Schneider, UC Irvine
Zachary Zeidler, UC Los Angeles
Lejla Medzikovic, UC Los Angeles
Brad Barker, UC Merced
Ingrid Padilla Espinosa, UC Merced
Tyler Bell, UC San Diego
Adam Caparco, UC San Diego
Jade Moore, UC San Francisco
Putu Ustriyana, UC San Francisco
Caitlin Taylor, UC Santa Barbara
Heda Agic, UC Santa Barbara
Jacob Porter, UC Santa Cruz
Jasmeet Dhaliwal, UC Santa Cruz

The post Postdoc Bargaining Update 9/10: ✍️ SIGN OUR LETTER TO UC ADMIN!! appeared first on UAW Local 5810.

Postdoc Bargaining Update 08/25: Compensation and Benefits

uaw5810 — Thu, 26 Aug 2021 17:15:10 +0000

In yesterday’s bargaining session, after hearing an update from UC’s team on Postdoc health benefits for 2022, we presented our contract proposals for compensation and benefits. We are fighting not only for increased wages, but for a compensation package that promotes equity and meets the needs of our diverse Postdoc population, specifically:

Affordable housing and housing subsidies similar to those in the UC medical interns and residents’ union contract, and temporary housing options for international Postdocs arriving from abroad.
Equitable retirement benefits as received by all other UC employees (including UC matching contributions) and lower costs for Postdoc health benefits
Relocation reimbursements for newly hired Postdocs.
Increased wages to match the cost of living and National Academy of Sciences recommendations.

UC’s counterproposals were mostly current contract language, reflecting a lack of effort, preparation, and concern for Postdoc working conditions. They also proposed increasing Postdoc health insurance costs and weakening their obligation to assist international scholars with work authorization issues.

The exact proposals from UAW and UC can be found in our proposal tracker. Our next bargaining session will be in early September, time/day TBD.

Member participation is critical to winning a strong contract. The bargaining committee holds weekly meetings that are open to all Postdoc members. There are lots of ways to get involved to fight for issues you’re passionate about! Click here to get involved!

In solidarity,
Postdoc Bargaining Team and Alternates

PS. To keep up with bargaining in real-time, follow us on Twitter @UAW5810!

The post Postdoc Bargaining Update 08/25: Compensation and Benefits appeared first on UAW Local 5810.

Postdoc Bargaining Update 08/18: Proposals for Professional Development and Transportation

uaw5810 — Wed, 18 Aug 2021 12:00:48 +0000

Tuesday’s session started with our proposals to enhance Postdoc training and professional development and address climate change by providing Postdocs with public transit passes and improved carpool and bike options. Specifics on our proposals can be found here in the proposal tracker. These proposals include:

Expand access and funding to career development events and training.
Ensure Postdocs get credit for their academic work by adding a resolution process for authorship disputes in our contract.
Extend Postdoc titles and classifications to allow Postdocs to serve as Principal Investigators on grants to expand funding opportunities.
Provide carpooling, public transit, and/or parking benefits to Postdocs to encourage affordable, greener solutions for commuting.

UC’s team presented us with more proposals that reduce Postdoc rights, weaken job security, and interfere with Postdocs’ ability to sign up as union members upon hiring.

Our next bargaining session will be Wednesday, August 25 from 1-3 PM. The session will be focused on benefits with a presentation from UC’s team. If you’re interested in attending or getting involved in other ways, click the link below!

Member participation is critical to winning a strong contract.

The bargaining committee holds weekly meetings that are open to all Postdoc members. There are lots of ways to get involved to fight for issues you’re passionate about! Click here to get involved!
There’s one more session of the UAW Organizing for Power Summer School TODAY (Wednesday, August 18) from 6-7 pm – you can join even if you missed the previous sessions. Come and learn how to organize to win a great contract! Click here to RSVP!

In solidarity,
Postdoc Bargaining Team and Alternates

PS. To keep up with bargaining in real-time, follow us on Twitter @UAW5810!

The post Postdoc Bargaining Update 08/18: Proposals for Professional Development and Transportation appeared first on UAW Local 5810.

Postdoc Bargaining Update 08/12: Proposals for access and equity

uaw5810 — Thu, 12 Aug 2021 17:00:17 +0000

Yesterday’s session started with UC finally agreeing with our proposal on ground rules for bargaining — this is a win and will ensure we have accessible bargaining sessions that allow open participation by Postdocs. We also made several substantive proposals to the UC to make our working conditions more equitable and accessible:

Expand our paid family leave benefit to cover family caregiving in addition to parental leave, and expand the amount of paid family leave to twelve weeks.
Establish a childcare subsidy.
Guarantee disability accommodations for all Postdocs’ needs, not only the minimum standard set up by the ADA.
Ensure all new Postdocs get a union orientation on their rights and benefits within their first month.

These proposals were informed by our conversations with members like you, our past experience as a union, and our extensive research into other union contracts. More details can be found in our proposal tracker.

UC’s team had prepared very little in advance, only coming with current contract language proposals on Waiver and No Strikes, and had a series of disrespectful responses to the Postdocs presenting our proposals.

Our next bargaining session will be Tuesday, August 17 from noon-2pm.

Member participation is critical to winning a strong contract.

The bargaining committee holds weekly meetings that are open to all Postdoc members. There are lots of ways to get involved to fight for issues you’re passionate about! Click here to get involved!
There’s one more session of the UAW Organizing for Power Summer School next Wednesday, August 18 – you can join even if you missed the previous sessions. Come and learn how to organize to win a great contract! Click here to RSVP!

In solidarity,
Postdoc Bargaining Team and Alternates

PS. To keep up with bargaining in real-time, follow us on Twitter @UAW5810!

The post Postdoc Bargaining Update 08/12: Proposals for access and equity appeared first on UAW Local 5810.

Postdoc Bargaining Update 08/02: Passing our first proposals

uaw5810 — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 01:30:43 +0000

During our session yesterday we presented six proposals to UC’s bargaining team. All are related to ensuring our rights as Postdocs are respected and are enforceable, including Grievance and Arbitration, No Strikes, Waiver, and Past Practice. Our proposals would improve and streamline the grievance process, enabling faster resolutions to workplace issues, and would also ensure that our members have the right to organize collectively to address issues impacting them and their communities. Check out our full proposals in the tracker!

We reached a tentative agreement to maintain current contract language on several articles including Workspace and Materials, University Facilities and Services, Training, Severability, Personnel Files, and Labor-Management Meetings. However, continuing their theme from our previous session, UC again passed proposals on Job Abandonment and Voluntary Resignation which would weaken our job security. UC did not succeed when they tried to include these proposals in our last contract in 2016 and — once again — they will not undermine our rights

Our next bargaining session will be on Wednesday, August 11, from 2-4 pm. Member participation is encouraged!

Click here to get involved! Member participation is critical to winning a strong contract. The bargaining committee holds weekly meetings that are open to all Postdoc members. Please come to hear bargaining updates, push new issues, and deliberate on bargaining strategy. You can also get involved with our teams to work on fighting for issues you’re passionate about! If you’d like to get involved with the bargaining process you can reply to this email. To keep up with bargaining in real-time, follow us on Twitter @UAW5810!

In solidarity,

The post Postdoc Bargaining Update 08/02: Passing our first proposals appeared first on UAW Local 5810.