August 19, 2021
UC administration now has two weeks to recognize SRU-UAW instead of the 30 day delay they wanted. In a rare rebuke, PERB has given UC admin only until September 2 to formally raise their objections to union recognition.
We already know what they’re going to say: that the thousands of SRs who work as trainees or fellows are “students” and not “employees,” do not share “a community of interest” with GSRs and so should not be given collective bargaining rights. That means UC doesn’t want protections from late pay, from harassment or discrimination, and anything that SRs are able to negotiate for to apply to all Student Researchers.
This is a bad faith effort to delay bargaining and weaken our collective power. UC’s outside counsel – Paul, Plevin, Sullivan, and Connaught – lists “union avoidance” as one of their areas of expertise on their website. “Union avoidance” is a well-known euphemism for union-busting, where employers like Amazon pay expensive law firms to prevent workers from exercising their democratic right to form a union.
UC must do better. SRs need to stand together in solidarity with trainees and fellows to demand the UC bargain with us. RSVP to the August 25th Statewide Day of Action to demand UC recognize SRU-UAW and begin negotiating with Student Researchers!
In solidarity,
Marcelo Francia
Neuroscience, UCLA
Trainee, Ophoff Lab
Alex Chubick
Human Genetics, UCLA
Graduate Student Researcher, Ophoff Lab