December 2, 2020
Have you or someone you know been paid late? We have heard that many Student Researchers (SRs) across the state have been paid late or incorrectly. With a union, SRs can negotiate the contractual right to timely pay; a right secured by Postdocs and TAs through their union contract. The Postdoc union (UAW 5810) and TA union (UAW 2865) have won significant grievances in the past, winning increased compensation for academic workers who have sometimes gone weeks without full pay. UAW 2865 even sponsored a law creating more accountability for UC to pay wages on time.
While Student Researchers don’t yet have a union grievance process, we can still look out for each other. Fill out this form if you’ve experienced a pay issue, and another Student Researcher will reach out to try to help you resolve it with your campus admin. Please also fill out the form if you’d like to support others with pay issues or if you can help ask others to sign a union authorization card.
Check out this video made by SRs about how pay issues have affected them now and in the past.
As we enter a difficult holiday season that many of us will be spending away from our families, one way Student Researchers are able to come together is through forming our union. If you have roommates, friends, or coworkers who haven’t yet signed a union authorization card, please reach out so we can get to majority and start winning more rights for Student Researchers at UC – like the right to be paid on time.
In solidarity,
Kate Crawford
Graduate Student Researcher
Bioengineering, UCSF
PS – If you haven’t seen it already, check out this article in Vice that covers this issue. UCLA has been paying Student Workers with Amazon gift cards!