Cutting-edge researchers win cutting-edge contract at University of California

There’s a lot to like in the historic contract that was ratified by an overwhelming 96 percent majority of University of California post-doctoral workers earlier this month.

You could pick wages, health and safety, just-cause provisions, improved access to professional mentoring or point to many other improvements that will have positive effects for the 6,000 post-docs in the UC system.

Neal Sweeney, a post-doctoral researcher, says when more people are unionized, it's better for everyone. Photo by J. Yamada.

But for Neal Sweeney, a post-doc neuroscience researcher at UC Santa Cruz, the organizing drive and the 18 months of bargaining that led to the first-ever contract for Postdoctoral Researchers Organize/UAW, was also about being part of a social justice campaign.

“I just thought that while working conditions for postdocs affects me directly, but when more people are unionized, it’s better for everyone,” Sweeney said after the vote.

It’s definitely better for the postdocs who conduct important research on topics that include cancer, stem cells, climate change, alternative fuels, and many other cutting-edge fields in science and engineering.

“Cutting-edge researchers deserve a cutting-edge contract,” UAW President Bob King said. “This contract would not be possible without academic workers lifting up their collective voices to be heard by the university.”

Before the agreement, their pay was often at the whim of administrators. They needed the ability to have a say in health and safety. They earned stronger contract language to protect from unjust dismissals and improved access to professional mentoring.
 
They won all of that and more in a contract that was ratified by a 96 percent margin in August. Their union, officially UAW Local 5810, was won through the card-check procedure in 2008. But the university stalled on bargaining. It wasn’t until the bargaining committee unleashed a “crescendo of activity” about three months ago to convince the administration to get moving toward an agreement. That activity included informational picketing by postdocs and support from academic workers at the university represented by UAW Local 2865,  plus visits by supporters to the chancellor’s office, and a congressional hearing by Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., who chairs the House Education and Labor Committee.

“You could tell at last they really wanted to move toward an agreement,” Sweeney said.

Under the agreement, their pay is now experience-based and tied to the National Institutes of Health scale, making them among the best-compensated postdocs in the nation. No more will postdocs be forced into the difficult and awkward position of asking immediate supervisors for raises.

 “In many cases people languished at minimum scale for many years,” Sweeney said.

The contract also makes the postdocs a true partner with the university in securing a safe work environment, which is important when considering that postdocs work with radioactive materials and some seriously toxic substances.

“It gives us the ability to help regulate health and safety,” Sweeney added.

Jim Wells, director of UAW Region 5, where UC is located, reminded postdocs that their fight for justice has only begun.

“A contract is only as good as the will to enforce and defend it,” Wells said. “We look forward to a productive relationship with the university and to help it remain among the top academic institutions in the world.”

Vince Piscopo