Each month, we’ll highlight members of our bargaining team and this month, we're highlighting members from UC Davis. You can find a full roster of our bargaining team representatives here.

How will winning a strong contract help your work or the people who benefit from your work?

Amy: I think it would aid retention for sure. We’ve had a lot of turnover in my department of late and recruitment has gotten harder due to the pay and when we do hire people they are sometimes already planning to leave. I love my work and my department and want our amazing staff to be able to build a career here if they choose.

Danielle: A strong contract means recruiting and retaining the best technicians. When individuals can go to work knowing that they aren’t just making “ends meet” and can actually enjoy life outside of work, they become happier and want to stay. Having a job that supports you while also working with our furry, feathered and scaly friends is a dream come true. Great technicians are the difference between groundbreaking research, top-quality patient (pet) care, and food-animal health. It’s a win-win for everyone, especially the UC.

Sonya: If we had a contract that prioritized recruiting and retaining the best social workers in the state, we would become competitive again. Winning a strong contract would allow us to stay and continue setting the standard for what world-class social work service is. It would make UC Davis a magnet for the best, and that is what our patients, clients, students, and community deserve.

Anastasia: Winning a strong contract would ensure that our patients continue to get the best care possible by attracting and retaining the specialized staff that we have. Therapists who work with our most vulnerable populations will get the pay that they deserve and have some work/life balance so they won't be so burned out that they leave.

We are now less than 2 months from our contracts’ expiration and UC is showing no urgency to reach an agreement. UC isn’t just rejecting our proposals - they are refusing to even acknowledge that issues like fair pay and compensation, work-life balance, job security, or staffing deserve serious consideration or discussion.

None of us want to strike, but we are not going to watch our talented and committed colleagues leave while our patients, our research, and our students suffer. We need to be ready to strike if that is the only thing that will convince UC to take our demands and their legal obligations seriously.

Fortunately, we are not alone. Last week, leading Mayoral candidates Aaron Peskin and Flojaune Cofer joined our rallies in San Francisco and Sacramento to let UPTE members know that they have our backs and are prepared to walk the picket lines with us. Over the past two weeks, thousands of UPTE members attended mass rallies and signed our pledge to strike.

Sign our strike pledge today at upte.org/strike. All of us need to be ready to vote YES to strike and walk the picket line, if UC doesn’t change course and FAST.

On July 18-19, your UPTE bargaining team proposed our second set of work-life balance improvements, focused on priorities set by you and your coworkers regarding reduced workweeks, flexible schedules, remote work, improved parental leave, additional pay for temporarily taking on higher level duties, and more.

After UC initially refused to meet on the UCLA campus, more than 300 workers joined bargaining and a rally at UPTE's office in Los Angeles to send a message that we're united and ready to act to win the world-class agreement we deserve.

Despite testimony from dozens of members demonstrating how the reclassification process is broken, the University insists that the existing reclassification "process is working." We know that this is not true - and made clear that we will not be backing down on this issue.

UC's proposal for Holidays did not address UPTE's proposal for additional floating holidays or a guarantee for healthcare workers to have at least Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Year off. Instead, UC is actually proposing to eliminate the option that hospital-based healthcare workers currently have to take Cesar Chavez Day as a floating holiday!

Our first month of bargaining with the University of California for UPTE healthcare, research, and technical members is in the books and our solidarity was on full display all month. You can find bargaining updates after each week of negotiations at www.upte.org/uofcalifornia.

During both weeks of negotiations in San Diego and later San Francisco, members joined us for in-person rallies at lunchtime and packed the bargaining room throughout the rest of the day to observe, show their support for our team, and occasionally provide scheduled testimony on a particular issue. These first-hand accounts, and our visible displays of unity, have a powerful impact on bargaining.

Everything we do this year has to show UC that we are united and prepared to pull off a super-majority strike statewide if they continue committing illegal and unfair labor practices or fail to take our proposals seriously.

We're hopeful we can quickly reach a deal at the table, but we’re also beginning to educate each other early about our rights if a strike becomes necessary. UC needs to see that we’re ready to fight to win the world-class contract we deserve. If you’re eager to get strike school scheduled at your workplace, reach out to your local leadership and staff organizers and let them know. Otherwise, we’ll be sharing more details soon.

Members at the California National Primate Research Center, a federally-funded biomedical research facility dedicated to improving human and animal health, organized a march on the boss late last year over better working conditions and demanded an equity review, which ultimately resulted in equity increases.

Emily Fletcher, an Animal Health Technician 3, shared the challenges and successes of the campaign. “It started with recognizing the high turnover and increased workload. We realized we weren’t being compensated fairly,” she said. The collective efforts and an equity letter led to pay raises for many in the unit, with employees moving up one to three steps, marking a $1 to $2 per hour increase. “It’s making it a lot easier for me to do things and not worry about living paycheck to paycheck,” Emily added, underscoring the personal impact of these raises.

Simultaneously, Animal Health Technician 4s at the Campus Veterinary Services also fought for and won an equity review, comparing their roles to those at the Primate Center.

Kim Alca, another Animal Health Technician 4, highlighted the solidarity that led to these successes. “We wrote a letter with support from our supervisors, showing the discrepancies in our pay compared to other technicians. We had one-on-one conversations with everyone on the team to create buy-in and, ultimately, ownership over what we’re fighting for. That told the university that we are united and won’t back down. These collective actions and the data we presented were crucial in winning our raises,” she said.

The practice of “flexing off” healthcare workers occurs when management believes that the number of staff on shift is greater than needed for the number of patients on caseload. It’s generally seen as a cost-cutting measure because most impacted workers are paid an hourly wage instead of a salary, and can have serious implications for workers.

“We had finally got our staffing levels up to a pretty good place when our census suddenly dropped. Management started to flex people off, first asking for volunteers who wanted to go home. That was less of an issue, but when they started mandating that people go home without pay, we sat up and took notice,” said Lea Bishop, a Speech Language Pathologist and UPTE Co-Chair at UCSD.

“People who have been there for a while were sometimes allowed to use PTO or sick time to flex off, but people on probation had to go home without pay—and the least senior people were the most likely to be sent home,” Lea recalled.

Lea brought these concerns up in a regular meeting that she and the rehab unit reps have with their director at UCSD Health, in which they try to collaboratively address issues before they become larger problems. It’s a meeting that Rehab members fought hard to get, and which includes a committee of leaders from every discipline and location. In that meeting, the staff pointed to the article in our contract that prohibits mandatory flexing off and the changing of schedules. Management put an end to the practice almost immediately.

“It’s a good reminder that having a strong working knowledge of our contract and being confident asserting that knowledge is important, but knowledge is only power if we put it into practice and aren’t afraid to back it up with action,” Lea concluded.

UPTE is proud to be a member-led union, and our annual convention will be a powerful gathering of our member leaders from across the state.

Each campus/chapter is assigned a proportional number of delegates to the convention based on membership. The delegate nomination period for this year's convention was open from May 21 through June 5, 2024. In chapters where the number of confirmed nominations was equal to or less than the number of allotted seats, nominees were elected by acclamation as delegates representing their chapter at this year's convention.

An election will be held to elect delegates from chapters where the number of candidates exceeds the number of allotted seats. This election will be held electronically and managed by ElectionBuddy. The election period will begin on July 8, 2024, and end on July 15, 2024.

You can find a list of delegates elected by acclamation, as well as candidates in contested elections, at upte.org/elections. The campuses with contested elections this year are:

• UC San Francisco (27 allotted delegates)

• Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (6 allotted delegates)

• UC Davis (23 allotted delegates)

• UC Santa Cruz (5 allotted delegates)

• UC Los Angeles (25 allotted delegates)

• UC San Diego (21 allotted delegates)

• UC Berkeley (9 allotted delegates)

Although strong contracts aren’t won by expert negotiators alone, having frontline members from every campus and across job titles is essential. We are the subject matter experts in our day-to-day work and know better than anyone what we need to advance our world-changing research, provide life-saving patient care, and make sure our technical expertise is respected.

UPTE’s bargaining team at UC is comprised of 25 members from a range of healthcare, research, and technical job titles from each UC campus and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. Each month, we’ll highlight members of our bargaining team from various UC campuses and workplaces. You can find a full roster of our bargaining team here.

What motivated you to run for the bargaining team?

Jamie Gardner - UC Berkeley, Staff Research Associate 2: Research workers make up a big part of UPTE’s membership at Berkeley, but we've been less organized than some of our union siblings. A lot of us are the only UPTE members in our lab or work team, we have high turnover, and it's a field that appeals to introverts. So I agreed to step up and help organize. It's been great talking to research workers across the state, talking shop, seeing where we have the same issues, and finding places where the rules are wildly different for no apparent reason.

Jonathan Bradford - UC Berkeley, Principal Lab Mechanician: I wasn't initially planning on running because I was worried about the amount of time I would be away from work and didn’t want to fall behind on projects. After more thought and out of a sense of duty to my fellow members at Berkeley, as well as my desire to win our best contract ever for our members statewide, I decided to run for the bargaining team so I could bring my firsthand experience and perspective to the table with UC administrators and represent the priorities of me and my colleagues.

Thanks to everyone who joined our pre-bargaining town hall last night. There was such demand to get in that we had to upgrade our Zoom account to accommodate everyone—while this is a fantastic problem to have, it does mean that folks who tried to join in the first ten minutes may not have been able to get into the meeting.

As a result, we're sharing a recording here with everyone who RSVP'ed so that you can watch it at your leisure and also share with your colleagues.

Max Belasco, an IT worker at UCLA, asked, "Can someone tell me in the chat what UC loves to say when we come to them and ask them to address our issues like worker retention, staffing, or below-market pay? That's right. When we ask UC to address our concerns, which ultimately impact our patients, our students, and our research, they pretend they don't have the money. Nothing could be further from the truth, as UC continues to spend billions on hospital acquisitions, hand out generous raises to Chancellors and CEOs, and hire more and more top administrators."

"Every action we take between now and winning a new contract is about demonstrating to the boss that we have the unity to pull off a super majority strike statewide," said Anastasia Vourakis, a Physical Therapist at UC Davis. "Now I know 15,000 people sounds like a big number, but if each of our leaders statewide talks to an average of only 10 people, we will hit a super majority of our coworkers across the system."

At our first contract bargaining session at UCSD last week, UPTE's statewide bargaining team came prepared to bargain.

We presented a detailed proposal to fix broken career ladders across the state. Our proposals require measurable, objective criteria to reach higher titles in a job series, and create an enforceable guarantee to receive that title and pay from the date you begin performing those duties.

UCSD members came prepared as well. Hundreds of members from UC San Diego came out to show their support for UPTE's proposals, to listen, and share powerful testimonials and case reports from across the system showing how the same problems impact workers across titles & UC campuses.

UPTE members like you shared powerful examples of how losing qualified staff due to broken or non-existent career ladders endangers patient care and research at UC. It was powerful having members pack the room, rally outside, and show UC we're serious.

Recently, the University of California announced that the annual cost of living raises for workers not covered by a collective bargaining agreement will be 4.6%. That's just for people who don't belong to a union. UPTE members, however, were eligible for a step increase in January and will receive an additional 3% in July—meaning that most UPTE members will receive 5% in 2024.

Over the life of this current contract, we won 29% in raises for RX and TX members and 32% for HX members. This came after a long fight that involved massive statewide mobilizations, including thousands of us going on strike. During that same period of time, our nonunion colleagues had no raises guaranteed—in some years, they received up to 3% depending on UC's discretion, and in years like 2020 they didn't receive a raise at all.

The raises we won in our contract are a minimum: we are actively campaigning for market and internal equity, reclassification, and shift differentials in addition to our contractual raises—and we're winning.

In addition to these contractual benefits, we've also fought and won additional pay and better working conditions up and down the state through our collective strength and solidarity.

You can learn more about those recent victories here.

None of what we've won would have been possible without our members being willing to work together and take action. It's clear that when we're organized and united, we have real power at work. That's the UPTE difference.

On May 21, UPTE’s bargaining team of Systems Administrators reached a Tentative Agreement (TA) with UC regarding pay scales and paid time off for SAs 1-3. Last week, these members voted overwhelmingly to ratify their TA, which now becomes official. 

Under the newly-ratified agreement, we were able to move UC from an initial offer of $74,000 for average SA3 starting pay to $94,000 and from an initial offer of $118,000 for SA3 max pay to $147,000. This means that nearly 100 Systems Administrators who are currently paid below Step 1 will see significant raises, some more than 20%.

"The inclusion of Systems Administrators in UPTE has been a seven-year ordeal in which the University of California repeatedly delayed negotiations and denied contractually obligated pay increases to SAs, making it harder to plan secure futures of ourselves, our families, and our careers,” said Joseph Menke, a Systems Administrator and UPTE Unit Representative from UC Davis who also served on the bargaining team. “I’m proud of the persistence and dedication of every member who was involved in making this agreement possible.”

Joseph continued, saying, “The agreement that we reached is a big step forward, providing pay increases for many long-time staff and a salary floor much closer to industry norms, but much more needs to be done to fix persisting pay inequities and improve how the university supports emerging technologies and secures research data. These are issues that we will be focused on in the upcoming TX contract negotiations and beyond."

UPTE members in the healthcare and research units at UCSF are flexing their collective muscles, winning equity adjustments and putting management on notice that we’re organized and serious about our demands. Physician assistants (PAs) achieved a significant eight percent mid-contract pay equity adjustment effective June 23, 2024, while staff research associates (SRAs) and lab assistants marched on university management demanding recognition of their vital work.

“This victory wouldn’t have happened without the tireless advocacy of UPTE members, colleagues, and our community. It was possible because we did the hard work of engaging with our colleagues and increasing our membership to over ninety percent before we finally were granted this well-deserved adjustment for our non-senior PA colleagues,” said Matthew Stephen, a UCSF PA who serves as an UPTE Chapter Co-Chair and our statewide Secretary. “As UC continues to consolidate and acquire hospitals across the state, now is the time for union members to stand together during bargaining to reset UC’s priorities to better serve PAs and our patients.”

In a parallel show of solidarity and strength, SRAs and lab assistants at UCSF recently organized a march on their boss to highlight ongoing workplace issues. Kaley Vittoria, an SRA 2 at UCSF for nearly a year-and-a-half, said, “Just remember, it starts with one action together, and when you get that ball rolling, it will continue. It’s scary at the moment, but after the fact, now I feel even more powerful because I know the ball is rolling. Whatever will come after that, management will be aware of our issues. If they don’t respect those issues, we will continue to fight for what’s right.”

Earlier in the year, UPTE workers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, a center for oceanography and Earth science based at UC San Diego, in La Jolla, won a seismic change in sea pay policy.  As union members, we know nothing is final until a formal written agreement codifies it—and after years of negotiating, the new sea pay agreement is final.

“The old policy, known as remote leave allowance, penalized us the more days in the month we worked,” described Andrew Naslund, a Marine Technician 3 working at Scripps for about four-and-a-half years. “If I went to sea Monday through Friday for the entire month and came home on the weekends, I’d be making almost the same amount of money plus or minus $35 a day, as if I went to sea from the first to the thirty-first. I’m essentially working my weekends for free. I’m not getting those days back; they’re just gone. We are not afforded the weekend.”

The new sea-pay policy was a hard-fought victory for Andrew and his colleagues across all seafaring departments. It aims to correct longstanding compensation inequities and significantly broadens the scope of what qualifies for sea pay. But getting that policy formalized into a written agreement has remained a priority.

“Over the last two years, we’ve repeatedly emphasized that we are the union. Many people refer to the union as a separate entity without recognizing that, as members of a public, member-run union, I am the union, you are the union—we all are. We’re collectively responsible for what we define as the union,” Andrew explained. “We’ve proven that when we, the union, come together, we can make things happen.”

Jere Justice, a pharmacist and UPTE unit representative at UCI Health — Fountain Valley, formerly Fountain Valley Regional Hospital, has been a driving force in labor organizing at his workplace. He thrives in the demanding environment of Fountain Valley, working the night shift and leading a team of technicians.

Since UCI Health acquired four medical centers at Fountain Valley, Lakewood, Los Alamitos, and Placentia Linda, along with outpatient care offices, on March 27, 2024, Jere’s leadership has been a beacon of trust for his colleagues.

Joining UPTE has reignited Jere’s passion for union work. He was impressed by UPTE’s structure and effectiveness, describing his initial Zoom meeting with UPTE leaders as a moment that “got me excited again.” He noted, “The union is well-organized, continually growing, and everyone seems to be on the same page, getting stuff done. It’s an impressive union.”

Jere’s leadership and dedication have significantly impacted his colleagues, who trust him to represent their interests. “They’re pretty excited about that and fired up to become active union members,” he says, referring to the anticipated changes under UPTE’s representation.

With our platform ratification vote behind us, I wanted to reflect on the last two years and share a bit about what lies ahead as we prepare for negotiations with UC.

When we look at unions that have recently fought for and won stellar contracts, including the UAW, LA teachers, and workers at Kaiser, we should also consider how they reached their goals. It starts with members stepping up in every workplace and at every campus or medical center so that we can share information quickly, enforce our contract when management misbehaves, and tackle our shared obstacles at work.

Last month, we put that contract platform up for a ratification vote. I was so proud to see nearly 9,500 UPTE members cast a ballot between April 4 - 18, approving these bargaining priorities by over 99%. That turnout represents a majority of all UC workers represented by our union—and we’re not stopping there.

Our first bargaining session with UC will be on June 11, when a team of 26 UPTE members across healthcare, research, and technical titles from every corner of the state will take your feedback and priorities into negotiations. I hope you feel as proud as I do of how far we’ve come together as a union.

Our next convention has officially been scheduled! In 2024, our next convention will take place at the San Diego Mission Bay Resort on September 28 & 29. The delegate nomination process will open on May 21 and close at 11:59 pm on June 5, 2024.

At the convention, elected delegates from workplaces across California take time to democratically determine the direction of our union while also participating in training and education workshops about building our union.

If the same or fewer members accept nomination to serve as convention delegates as allotted to that campus, they shall be considered elected by acclamation. If more than the allotted number of members accept their nomination then an election will be held and the top-ranking candidates will serve as delegates.

All members in good standing are eligible to serve as convention delegates. If you want to be a delegate, you should run for this position with the intention of attending the entirety of the convention. UPTE will pay for hotel rooms, airfare/mileage, and other reasonable travel expenses.

April 1 marks the beginning of an exciting week for University of California workers. We kick off our 2024 Contract Platform vote and Bargaining Team elections. The polls will be open from April 4 through April 18.

"Last year, we had thousands of conversations with UPTE members across their state who made their demands loud and clear; we deserve fair pay, clear pathways to career progression, improved work/life balance, better staffing, and job security. Those are the principles that our 2024 Contract Platform is rooted in," said Matthew Stephen, a Physician Assistant at UCSF and UPTE Chapter Co-Chair.

Contract negotiations are about showing strength in numbers, and we want to start bargaining off from a place of strength. That means UC needs to know that an overwhelming majority of our 18,000 members support these priorities. Strong turnout during our ratification vote will help us send a clear message to management that we're serious.

"We have a responsibility to provide world-class patient care, research, and education to Californians in every corner of our state—and our employer has a responsibility to make sure we have the support, resources, and staffing to fulfill that tremendous mission," Matt said. "Swing by with a few of your coworkers to vote together and say 'hello!'"

Tim Wilson is an Assistant Museum Scientist who has worked as a film prep technician at UCLA's Film & Television Archive for over 13 years after a career as an assistant film editor on feature films. Along with his fellow UPTE unit representatives around the state, Tim has been helping spread the word about the upcoming platform ratification and bargaining team election vote among his colleagues.

"I've been doing a lot of meetings with groups in the RX classification. We've been sharing the pamphlet that lays out our tentative platform for negotiations as a jumping-off point for discussions, and so far people have been really excited about everything they've seen in there," Tim said.

Although the platform resonates broadly with Tim and his colleagues, fair pay and career progression is an important priority for them. "Our expertise is rare, but sustaining a career at UC can be challenging for us because the pay is not great and many people deserve reclassification," said Tim. But he feels confident that by continuing to take action and demonstrate our unity, we'll be able to win a strong next contract with UC in this year's negotiations. "This is all about showing numbers to the UC. We're focused on maintaining high membership levels and participation among our group in the RX unit and we encourage everyone else to do the same by participating in the platform ratification process."

In a profession where resilience meets compassion, social workers provide support for countless people navigating all of life's difficulties. Among these dedicated professionals is Sonya Mogilner, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) of nearly eight years. Sonya is a UPTE unit representative at UC Davis Medical Center, California's only Level 1 Trauma Center north of San Francisco.

"I never really fancied myself as a union girl or a leader," Sonya conveyed. "When I first came here, I had a horrible boss. I felt she was trying to get me to quit. I filed and ultimately won a grievance against her. After that, I felt unstoppable. I was like, 'I'm out here.' I stuck my neck out, and I won."

As the United States observes Social Work Month in March, the spotlight on social workers like Sonya underscores the essential, yet often overlooked, roles they play in society. "It's about being there on what could be the worst day of a patient's life, offering not just care, but a shoulder to lean on, guidance, and hope," Sonya articulates, capturing the essence of her profession's mission. Sonya is at the forefront of a campaign advocating for market equity adjustments for LCSWs, emphasizing that "this petition is more than just about pay; it's about respect, recognition, and the sustainability of our profession."

Show your support by signing their petition at upte.org/lcsw.