Wow, Student Researchers really made the headlines with the May 24th card delivery in Oakland! Some of the news stories about the action are linked below. Be on the lookout for continued press coverage of SRU-UAW and the fight for an SR union!
Daily Cal – Graduate student researchers organize to form new union
Detroit Free Press – UAW gets more than 10,000 signatures to organize 10 University of California campuses
Inside Higher Ed – U of California Graduate Researchers Form Union
Santa Barbara News-Press – Student researchers organize across UC campuses
Sacramento Bee – Student researchers are the backbone of the UC system. They deserve equal protections.
What’s next for SRU-UAW?
When SRs turned in cards on May 24th, the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB, the state labor board) gave UC a 10 day window in which to formally acknowledge receipt of the petition for recognition. If you haven’t already, you may soon receive an email from UC containing the petition. You can also find a copy of it on the SRU-UAW website.
UC must now supply PERB with a list of all Student Researchers within 20 days so that PERB can begin verifying our majority. Based on past experience with UC, they will likely request an extension from PERB. In that time, SRs are continuing to sign authorization cards in support of SRU-UAW. With every card signed, SRs gain a stronger position to negotiate a first contract.
Can you forward the authorization card link to your friends and colleagues? You can also help build SRU-UAW in other ways. If you’d like to get involved, just reply to this email and an SR from your campus will be in touch soon.
In solidarity,
Hayley Bounds
Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, UC Berkeley
NSF GRFP