On May 24, 2021, at 11 AM, Student Researchers are gathering in Oakland to deliver authorization cards signed by a supermajority of UC Student Researchers to the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB), the California state labor board. This is a major accomplishment – everybody who has contributed to building majority support for SRU-UAW should be proud.
Once cards are submitted, PERB will ask for a list of Student Researchers from UC administration to verify that a majority of SRs have signed cards. At that point, we expect that UC will recognize SRU-UAW and begin negotiating collectively with Student Researchers. Read more about the next steps of the process on this FAQ.
Do you live in the San Francisco Bay Area? If so, come out today to celebrate this historic occasion! SRs are gathering near PERB at 11 AM at Oscar Grant Plaza in downtown Oakland for a rally as the cards are submitted. There will be a small celebratory gathering afterwards at Snow Park near Lake Merritt starting at about 12 PM.
If you cannot attend in person, you can follow the action via livestream on Facebook. The livestream will start around 11:15 AM.
Social Media
You can support today’s rally in several ways. Share photos from the SRU Facebook and Instagram with the hashtags #sruuaw and #ucsru. Or, follow SRU-UAW on Twitter.
What’s next?
Attend the statewide informational meeting later this week. While today is a major milestone, the fight for a Student Researchers union is not yet over. Student Researchers are still signing authorization cards to vote to form a union. SRU will continue submitting cards until PERB completes its count, a process which could take several weeks, as this is the largest unionization of academic student employees in US history. The more SRs that sign cards, the more power we will have to negotiate with UC.
Attend the statewide informational meeting this Thursday at 5:30 PM to learn more about the next phase of the campaign. Once UC recognizes SRU-UAW, SRs will elect a bargaining team and begin negotiating a contract. If you have questions about how this will work, or ideas for building SR power, you should plan on attending the info session. You can RSVP at this link.
In solidarity,
James Boocock
Graduate Student Researcher
Human Genetics, UCLA
