August 4, 2021
Today, California’s Public Employment Relations Board verified that a majority of Graduate Student Researchers, Trainees, and Fellows, in the UC system have signed authorization cards in support of forming a union. This is a major achievement! Student Researchers submitted over 11,000 cards, a supermajority of SRs at UC, making SRU-UAW the largest unionization campaign in the country this year and the largest unionization effort of academic student employees in U.S. history.
UC administration now has 15 days to respond; they can either respect the democratic decision of SRs at UC, recognize SRU-UAW, and begin bargaining a fair contract, or they can refuse to recognize the democratic decision of SRs and try to delay the process.
To help UC make its decision, over 600 Student Researchers from departments on all 10 UC campuses sent letters to their campus administrators, asking UC to swiftly recognize our union and bargain a first contract. Take the SRU bargaining survey to show UC that SRs are ready to bargain, and respond to this email if you’d like to get more involved!
Solidarity,
Jess Banks
UC Berkeley
Department of Mathematics
NSF GRFP
PS – SRs have been meeting with members of California’s state legislature to inform them about our campaign. Check out this supportive tweet from State Senator Nancy Skinner, whose district includes UC Berkeley.