October 20, 2021 UC’s conduct towards its workers is downright ghoulish! Not only is UC denying recognition to our new union, but they are also stalling at the bargaining table with Postdocs in UAW 5810 and refusing to make meaningful proposals on key issues like compensation and housing. Keep the pressure on UC by attending the action on Thursday, 10/28 (UC Santa Cruz will be rallying on Tuesday 10/26). Student Researchers and Postdocs will be rallying together to protest UC’s refusal to improve working conditions for researchers. You can also keep the pressure on UC by voting on the resolution. If you’ve already voted on the...

September 22, 2021 Today, voting begins in the Student Researchers United resolution to demand UC stop stalling and recognize SRU-UAW in its entirety. Vote ‘yes’ on the resolution to affirm that SRs are united behind our demand for recognition of all SRs. Despite supermajority democratic support from SRs, UC is choosing to waste time and money on a legal appeal with no basis in reality (see SRU’s response to their arguments here). Every day UC refuses to recognize SRU-UAW is another day SRs work without the protections of a union contract. Last Friday, PERB sent SRU-UAW a new update, in which they requested additional information and asked...

September 16, 2021 Student Researchers United is launching a resolution to demand that UC recognize the union chosen by a supermajority of SRs - including the thousands of Trainees and Fellows who UC says are not “workers” and have no “community of interest” with GSRs and GSRAs (see SRU’s breakdown of their argument here). The voting will begin Wednesday, September 22.  A strong “Yes!” vote on this resolution will show UC that GSRs, GSRAs, fellows, and trainees are united with each other, and reject UC’s divide-and-conquer tactics. The more SRs who vote for the resolution, the greater unity we will show UC. You will receive an email when...

September 9, 2021 Last week, UC refused to recognize SRU, claiming that Fellows and Trainees are not employees and don’t share a “community of interest” with other Student Researchers. The University tried to subvert the law by attempting to “recognize” only a portion of us. Legally, that was not an option. The workers, not the employer, decide who forms the union. In response to the UC, the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) issued a letter clarifying that UC could not partially recognize SRU. From their letter: “It appears that the University sought to recognize only part of UAW’s petitioned-for unit. This was not one of the choices...

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...

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.  RSVP to the August 25th Statewide Day of Action to tell UC to do the right thing and recognize SRU-UAW. 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...

August 4, 2021 Today, California’s Public Employment Relations Board verified that a majority of Graduate Student Researchers, Trainees, and Fellows, in the UC system have signed authorization cards in support of forming a union. This is a major achievement! Student Researchers submitted over 11,000 cards, a supermajority of SRs at UC, making SRU-UAW the largest unionization campaign in the country this year and the largest unionization effort of academic student employees in U.S. history.  UC administration now has 15 days to respond; they can either respect the democratic decision of SRs at UC, recognize SRU-UAW, and begin bargaining a...

Last Wednesday, UC submitted a list of trainees and fellows to the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) to be included in the count for a Student Researcher union. This is in addition to the lists they had already submitted of GSRs, GSRAs and GSARs, and means that PERB can complete its count to verify that a majority of SRs have voted to form a union. The count will likely be completed by sometime next week.  This is exciting news, but there is also cause for concern. In the cover letter to UC’s submission, their lawyers write, "By providing this list, The Regents does not admit that these graduate students are performing substantially...

Harassment and discrimination are pervasive in higher education and at UC, where 59% of Student Researchers surveyed have witnessed harassment or discrimination. While UC verbally commits to equitable labs and workplaces, they offer very little remedy when faced with harassment. Share your thoughts on how to change this by taking a minute to fill out the SR Bargaining Survey. Take the Student Researchers United bargaining survey In my first year, my cohort experienced a shocking lack of action when we tried to address a professor behaving inappropriately. Now, I know that this is an all too common outcome. Student Researchers need a union...

We’re very happy to launch the first Student Researchers United bargaining survey! Completing this survey will help build our collective understanding of what improvements are important to SRs, and collect more ideas and feedback. CLICK TO TAKE THE BARGAINING SURVEY We are continuing to wait for UC to provide a complete list of Student Researcher employees to California’s Public Employment Relations Board (PERB). Last week, UC provided a partial list of GSRs and GSARs to PERB, but they also requested a 28 day extension to file a complete list that includes Trainees and Fellows. While UC finishes putting their list together, we are...