Bargaining Update #12: Major wins after four days of bargaining, management continues bargaining in bad faith
Yesterday, Bargaining Team members wrapped up a four-day bargaining marathon. These were the first sessions since thousands of Academic Student Employees on every campus rallied with research and student support staff on November 20th. Over four full days of bargaining, ASEs won tentative agreements on nine key proposals and presented over a dozen other proposals on workload, class sizes, work-life balance, and abuse in the workplace.
Berkeley/LBL academic workers at the rally on 11.20
Major wins on workplace abuse, harassment, and discrimination
UC management attempted to claw back protections against abusive conduct ASEs fought for and won in 2022, but pressure from workers across the state forced them to back down. The tentative agreements on our Respectful Work Environment and Non-Discrimination articles set a new industry standard for all higher education contracts by guaranteeing:
Immediate action from management when allegations of bullying, harassment, or discrimination are made;
A streamlined process to resolve violations;
Caste-based discrimination is now explicitly barred.
Progress on discipline, job classifications, grievance process
ASEs secured tentative agreements on Discipline and Dismissal, Employment Files, and Grievance and Arbitration. In these tentative agreements, management agreed to:
Back off their attempts to create a new disciplinary process for “job abandonment";
Provide advance notice of investigatory meetings;
Remove disciplinary documents after two years at an ASE’s request
Clear definitions of TA, Associate Instructor, Tutor, and Reader job duties for the first time in 25 years
Faster resolution of workplace issues through our grievance process, including standing arbitration dates and an end to management's delay tactic of “bifurcated” arbitration
ASEs also reached tentative agreements on the Union Security and ASE Recognition and Titles articles, as well as a side letter simplifying job titles for instructional ASEs.
Contract Extension and What’s Next
This progress at the bargaining table comes in spite of UC management’s continued bad-faith bargaining. Last week, ASEs filed two Unfair Labor Practice charges over management’s unilateral changes to working conditions.(Read the full charges here).
At the close of bargaining, your Bargaining Team scheduled our next bargaining dates for January and signed a one-month contract extension. When ASEs return to campus in January, it will be on all of us to ratchet up the pressure even further to force UC management to bargain in good faith on outstanding key priorities, including protections for international workers, job security, and fair and stable pay.
Winning a strong contract will take all of us. Thousands of workers have already joined the Contract Action Team (CAT) to push UC management to bargain fairly and ask their coworkers to do the same. Join the CAT today.