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What is going on now with the Union?
Our bargaining committee continues to negotiate for our historic first contract with UC. Please check here for further updates about bargaining or to get involved in helping to win a strong first contract for Postdocs. Contact us to find out how you can help win a strong first contract.
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What is collective bargaining and how is it different from what we had before?
Collective bargaining equalizes the power relationship between employees and their employer. With collective bargaining, UC cannot make unilateral changes to our wages, benefits, and working conditions. Postdoc representatives we elect survey us to determine priorities and then negotiate a contract with UC. We can negotiate for improvements in wages, hours, benefits, and terms and conditions of employment. We will have an opportunity to democratically approve the agreement that UC and our bargaining committee reach, before it becomes a binding contract. A contract is generally enforced by a grievance procedure, ending with binding arbitration before a neutral third party, rather than the UC administration.
In the past, UC could make unilateral changes to our wages, benefits, and working conditions. UC could seek input from advocacy organizations like the PSA, but such input lacks the equal footing, the legal rights, and the democratic process provided by collective bargaining. With a Union, advocacy organizations will continue to play a valuable role in advocating for UC Postdocs. It was only by forming a Union that we could expand our rights, negotiate on an equal footing with UC, and be able to deliver binding contracts. The National Postdoctoral Association (NPA) recognizes and respects the right of Postdocs to engage in collective bargaining.
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How have Postdocs participated in the collective bargaining process?
A majority of Postdocs have been actively involved in the collective bargaining process in a variety of ways:
- A majority of Postdocs signed authorization cards choosing UAW to represent UC Postdocs in collective bargaining. The Union was recognized by UC in November 2008.
- Thousands of Postdocs filled out surveys about bargaining priorities and campus working conditions throughout our campaign.
- The elected Postdoc bargaining team drew on these thousands of surveys to develop initial bargaining proposals which Postdocs voted to ratify in December 2008.
- 92% of Postdocs participating voted in March 2009 to authorize the bargaining committee to call a strike if circumstances justify, such as UC committing Unfair Labor Practices.
- Over 60% of Postdocs (more than 3700 total) signed onto an open letter urging UC President Yudof to reach agreement expeditiously on a first contract in August 2009.
- A majority of Postdocs during the Fall of 2009 participated in questionnaires to help determine how to have an effective Unfair Labor Practices strike if that becomes necessary.
- Postdocs across the state have participated in a PRO/UAW Strike Strategy Group to make recommendations to the bargaining committee about the most effective way to have an unfair labor practice strike.
- In the Winter of 2010, a majority of Postdocs signed letters to their Congressional representatives asking that they contact UC President Yudof and urge him to reach agreement on a fair first contract that improves Postdoc salaries, benefits and rights.
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Have other Postdocs Unionized?
Postdocs at Rutgers University, University of Connecticut Health Center, University of Alaska, McMaster University and the University of Western Ontario have all successfully unionized. Postdocs at the University of Toronto are currently fighting for recognition.
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How has collective bargaining benefited Postdocs elsewhere?
An article in Science’s Next Wave outlines many of the improvements won by unionized Postdocs at the University of Connecticut Healthcare Center (UCHC) though collective bargaining. In the first contract, Postdocs won significant wage increases--as much as $10,000 in some cases, annual cost of living adjustments, improved evaluation procedures and advances in other aspects of their rights and working conditions. Although, at the time Postdocs were unionizing at UCHC, some claimed that higher pay for Postdocs would mean fewer positions or that Union representation might negatively impact Postdoc relationships with their PIs, these concerns have not materialized. Some also feared that the multiple and varied nature of Postdoc funding sources would make it difficult to bargain wages without negatively affecting grants. However, unionized Postdocs at UCHC say they have not seen any negative impact on grants from collective bargaining (Benderly, Science’s Next Wave, 3 March 2006).
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Why did Postdocs organize and why are we part of the UAW?
UC officials at the system-wide level determine many of our employment issues beyond the control of our funding sources, PIs, and research groups. Most UC employees have already unionized and engage in collective bargaining with the administration. We, too, are now exercising our legal rights to bargain with UC.
Many Postdocs at UC were members of the UAW when they were graduate students. A strong majority of UC’s 12,000 Academic Student Employees selected the UAW in the 1990’s. The UAW represents over 20,000 Academic Student Employees, including UC, CSU and UW. In its Academic Council, the UAW represents teachers, researchers, counselors, clericals, service workers and maintenance workers at over 40 universities and colleges.
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What does signing a card mean?
The card states “Count me in the majority.” The card authorizes our Union, PRO/UAW, to be our representative for collective bargaining. The card also says that “no one will pay any dues or fees until a contract has been democratically approved by Postdocs.” Under State law, when a majority of employees signed up, the Public Employment Relations Board verified the majority and we were certified to bargain our contract. It is not a membership card. UAW does not ask anyone to be a member of the Union until after ratification of a first contract. After a contract is ratified, each Postdoc will be able to choose whether or not to be a member of the Union – the fact that a Postdoc signed an authorization card does not obligate her/him to become a member of the Union.
In the meantime, signing an authorization card makes a Postdoc eligible to participate in Union decisions such as voting on whether to ratify the contract. Any Postdoc can sign an authorization card, free of charge, at any time.
This means that after the contract is ratified, the Union will conduct a membership drive with a dues authorization/membership card.
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At what point do we start paying dues and for what are they used?
No one in the UAW pays dues until those represented by the Union have had an opportunity to vote on and approve a first contract. While the law allows for collection of dues and fees prior to the first contract, the UAW believes it is important for those represented to have the opportunity to evaluate the results of negotiations prior to being required to pay dues or fees. Therefore, Postdocs determine when anyone starts paying dues or fees by deciding whether to ratify the first contract. Since any Postdoc can sign an authorization card, free of charge, every Postdoc has the opportunity to participate in this important decision.
After UC Postdocs ratify a contract, dues for employees who choose to join as members are 1.15% of gross salary. The law requires the Union to represent everyone in a majority certified unit, regardless of Union membership. Accordingly, after a contract is ratified, most contracts provide for non- members to pay a “fair share” fee for representational services (usually about 80-90% of the dues amount). Dues support a variety of resources that equalize power with the employer and enable us to represent our members. These include educational, legal, organizing, negotiating and other representational services.
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What are the rights of international scholars to participate in the Union?
International scholars have the same rights to join and participate as US citizens. In many years of representing international student workers at UC and elsewhere, no one has reported any complications in their status from unionizing. International scholars have joined and participated in the Union in large numbers. In fact, many Postdocs on our Organizing Committees are international scholars from many different countries, like China, India, Mexico, Germany, and Poland.
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How has the UAW fought for expansion of the rights of international workers?
Through the Union and its national clout, we have won important protections and rights in the post 9/11 political climate. The UAW has also advocated for international workers to be able to freely choose their employment, opposes employer control over the H1-B visa, and advocates for increased flexibility and length of work opportunities for international workers at US universities. Read the UAW's position on rights of immigrant workers.
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How and when did Postdocs form a Union?
In July, 2006 a strong number of UC Postdocs statewide signed up for the Union and PRO/UAW filed for recognition with PERB, the state labor board. During the PRO/UAW organizing drive we did not have a list of all the Postdocs. In the course of working through the petition process with the University we learned that 500-600 of the cards we submitted to PERB were from people who identified as Postdocs at the time they signed, but now were not Postdocs and not on the list, largely due to the transition of Postdoc job titles under APM 390. As a result, we were approximately 100 cards short of majority and so on October 31, 2006 we withdrew the petition for certification that we had filed.
On June 30, 2008, a strong number of UC Postdocs again signed up for the Union and PRO/UAW filed for recognition with PERB, and on August 20, 2008 PERB confirmed that majority. On November 4, 2008 the University of California recognized PRO/UAW as the exclusive bargaining representative of Postdoctoral Scholars at all 10 of the University of California campuses.
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If you would like more information, please call the PRO/UAW office at (415) 538-0844.
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