September 3, 2021
Late yesterday, UC administrators sent a letter to the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) formally refusing to recognize SRU-UAW as the Union for all the Student Researchers who chose to form it. In fact, UC seeks to prevent all SRs from immediately getting to the bargaining table by arguing that thousands of Fellows and Trainees should be excluded from SRU-UAW.
UC repeats the same tired arguments they have made over decades of opposing Student Researcher unionization: that thousands of Student Researchers who work as Trainees and Fellows are students, not workers, and that they shouldn’t have the right to collectively bargain for rights and protections in the workplace alongside their coworkers. Moreover, they argue in their letter: “Even if PERB determines the non-GSRs are ‘employees’ under HEERA, there is no community of interest between GSRs and non-GSRs [Trainees and Fellows].” You can read the full letter here.
This is unacceptable. Fellows and Trainees perform and are compensated for the same work as Graduate Student Researchers, for the same supervisors, in the same labs, and make equal contributions to UC’s research mission. A supermajority of Fellows and Trainees across UC signed authorization cards to form a union with their colleagues. Sign this petition telling UC that Student Researchers will stick together until they respect our democratic choice and begin bargaining without delay.
UC’s refusal to recognize SRU is an attack on all of us, not just Fellows and Trainees. Their transparent attempt to divide Student Researchers is aimed at weakening the power of our entire union. They understand that when Student Researchers are united, all of us have more power to negotiate improvements. Read more about Student Researchers’ fight for union recognition here.
Last week, nearly 2,000 Student Researchers took to the streets at all ten campuses to demand UC recognize our legal right and democratic choice to form a union. But UC’s announcement makes clear that the administration intends to delay this process, a common union-busting tactic.
Add your voice to this petition, demanding UC to drop their obstructionist objections, recognize the right of all SRs to form a union, and sit down at the bargaining table without delay.
In Solidarity,
James Boocock
Graduate Student Researcher
Human Genetics, UCLA