Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

“I’m a Graduate Student in Materials Science and Engineering working on cobalt free lithium ion battery cathodes. I see unionization as winning us two very important things. One, we will be able to bargain for higher wages, protections against sexual harassment and discrimination and higher workplace safety standards. Two, we will be building enormous political power together through a GSR union. Together, we can affect statewide action by demanding California legislators act on issues of racial justice, climate change and affordable housing.” – Jordan Burns

“I am a Ph.D student in the Physics department and a GSR at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. I study the electronic structure of superconductors and superconductor heterostructures using photoemission spectroscopy. A Student Researcher union will allow us to fight issues of discrimination and harassment, as well as make our workplaces safer and any changes to our wages more transparent.” – Kayla Currier

“I’m a physics Ph.D. student and a GSR at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. My research is focused on high precision tests of the Standard Model of particle physics. Given persistent issues of harassment and discrimination in graduate school, as well as the unique challenges our international coworkers often face, forming a union is the best path forward for protecting researchers in the work place. We need a union to ensure SRs are protected so that we can focus on our work, knowing if we face harassment we will be protected by the collective power of our coworkers.” – Greg Ottino

“I’m a Graduate Student Researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab’s Joint Genome Institute, where I study genome structure and evolution in biofuel grasses. We student workers in the sciences often have an easier time securing funding than our counterparts in the social sciences and humanities, and so we may take our wages and rights for granted. That is, until the system hits us close to home. I sure could have used a union when my advisor’s funding fell through and LBNL missed several of my paychecks. Let’s not forget that while we don’t all have the same privileges, we do have the same responsibilities. It’s up to all of us to hold the system accountable.” – Virginia Scarlett