The Science Policy Group at UCLA publicly endorses the unionization effort by Student Researchers United / UAW.
Across the University of California (UC), Graduate Student Researchers (GSRs) are anonymously voting on whether to unionize in order to obtain collective bargaining power to negotiate with the UC administration.
Evidence shows that unionization tends to lead to higher wages and expanded worker benefits. Since the UC’s Graduate Teaching Assistants unionized in 2000, TA wages have increased at a 30% higher rate compared to non-unionized UC student workers. The TA union’s 2018 contract secured additional protections regarding immigration hearings, discrimination, and campus policing.
In the academic context, graduate students are often worried that unionizing may hurt their relationship with their advisor. However, past research indicates that graduate student unions are not known to have this effect, and may even improve mentor-mentee relationships by providing formal avenues for tough conversations about wages, vacation time, harassment, and medical leave.
Given past research supporting the efficacy of unions in obtaining collective bargaining power for wage increases, expanded benefits, and protection against discrimination and workplace harassment, we publicly declare our support for SRU’s ongoing unionization effort at UC.
We encourage all UC Graduate Student Researchers to inform themselves about the union formation process and to consider voting for union formation by digitally signing a union authorization card.
As an organization engaging with the intersections of science and policy, we believe that advocating for a strong graduate student workforce across the University of California will lead to better stability in the lives of graduate students, which in turn will stimulate research activities and improve the quality of the next generation of California’s scientists.
Signed,
The Science Policy Group at UCLA
