University Professional and Technical Employees CWA Local 9119 (UPTE CWA 9119) is a labor union founded in 1990 by a group of employees who believed that workers across the University of California and at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory would benefit from a union to safeguard and expand our rights. In 1993, UPTE members voted to affiliate with the Communications Workers of America (CWA), a 700,000-member union in the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), the largest federation of unions in the United States, and in the Strategic Organizing Center (SOC), a North American national trade union center.

In 1994, 4,000 UC technical employees voted for UPTE representation. In 1996, 3,700 UC research professionals joined them; in 1997, 2,000 UC healthcare professionals followed suit. UPTE has grown to 22,000 as UC’s Medical Centers have expanded, and we have added new titles to all of our bargaining units.

UPTE contracts also cover part-time, adjunct, and associate faculty, as well as counselors and librarians, at Butte College, College of the Sequoias, and Mt. San Jacinto College.