Three unions reached tentative agreements with the University of California on Friday, bringing eight months of negotiations to a close and averting a potential statewide strike.
The unions, which are units of the United Auto Workers, represent academic student employees, student services and advising professionals, as well as research and public service professionals across the U.C. system. In total, they represent 40,000 systemwide, and 2,000 at UCSF.
In February, they voted to authorize a strike, accusing the university of engaging in unfair labor practices and bad faith bargaining. UC’s Office of the President said it strongly disagrees with those claims.
Following Friday’s tentative deal, union leaders said they would not call a strike.
“I think it’s really a best case scenario,” said Austin Edwards, bioinformatics programmer at UCSF and a member of the bargaining team for Research and Public Service Professionals.
Negotiations for Academic Student Employees and Student Services and Advising Professionals began in July, while Research and Public Service Professionals joined the bargaining process in October. In February, all three units entered mediation with the university.
On Thursday, workers across the U.C. campuses walked picket lines as a “last chance” measure before going on strike. At UCSF, about 100 people held a demonstration in front of the Weill Neurosciences building in Mission Bay.
“What I can say is that it was evident that the picket that we held on Thursday was absolutely instrumental in getting us over the finish line,” Edwards said.
U.C. did not reply to Mission Local’s request for comment on the tentative agreement in time for publication.
For two of the units — Student Services and Advising Professionals and Research and Public Service Professionals — the tentative agreement would mark their first contract with the university. U.C. recognized the unions in April and September, respectively. The two units have bargained jointly, and their tentative agreement includes a minimum of 27.8 percent wage increase over four years.
For the Academic Student Employees, whose contract ended in February, the tentative deal plans for an up to 45 percent increase in salary for teaching assistants and graduate student researchers over four years, and for raises of 21 percent on average for hourly workers.
Both tentative agreements also involve additional protection for international students, such as protected leave for workers to attend immigration hearings. They also include protection for hybrid and remote work arrangements.
Gains of particular significance for UCSF workers include making sure first year STEM academic student employees receive union protection, and transit subsidies for workers to travel between campuses, said Riley Stockard, graduate student researcher at UCSF.
Stockard said the agreements represented an “exciting” win for the unions. “There were no clawbacks, we only expanded the rights and benefits that we got,” she said.
All three units will hold a vote to ratify the contracts next week, starting at 9 a.m. on Tuesday and ending at 5 p.m. on Friday.
“I can’t overstate how proud I am of this agreement that we’ve been able to get,” Edwards said.