The list of signatures on this letter is updated periodically based on response to this form.
Against an Anti-union No Vote Campaign
We write as rank and file members of UAW 2865 and SRU-UAW dismayed by the effort to organize a No Vote against a tentative agreement which has not yet been secured. This effort is led by the bargaining team members who have thus far been against efforts to negotiate or move off of our union’s opening proposals. It has also taken hold in some parts of the rank and file within our union, who like to claim to speak for the entire non-elected membership. While dissenting opinions are welcome in our union, the current effort to stoke resistance to a future agreement has taken on an anti-union tendency that should be strongly rejected.
Once there is a tentative agreement to vote on, there would be nothing wrong with encouraging a No Vote if you have a plan to win a better agreement and are actively organizing to execute it. However, those currently pushing a Vote No campaign have articulated no such strategy and criticize efforts by the most active rank and file organizers to escalate and build the power of our strike.
Instead of organizing to build our strike, this contingent is writing guides about how to organize a Vote No campaign that include right-wing union busting tactics such as those in the screenshot below.
This kind of disruption shuts down democratic processes and alienates rank and file workers from their union meetings. This toxic behavior not only diminishes our current power, but will discourage members from participating in strikes in the future. If the solidarity we have built through this strike is overshadowed by bad faith attacks on each other, how will we organize an even more powerful strike next time around?
Many of those who are sympathetic to the idea of a No Vote are motivated by concerns that the bargaining process has not been democratic or transparent enough. We share the belief that transparency and democracy should be prioritized, and also believe that union members can play a proactive role in improving the process. Though some of us have been taken off guard by decisions made by our bargaining teams, we have been actively working with them to improve the process and have found them very receptive. In a multi-unit statewide strike by a union as large as ours, we should expect challenges to democratic process and assume good faith as we correct the course.
Against minimizing what our strike has already won
Our mass participation strike has already won incredible victories, which some attempt to minimize by describing other bargaining team members’ choice to vote on tentative agreements as “selling out.” When we turn against our fellow workers (on or off the bargaining teams) for not securing all of our initial demands, we lose sight of the goal of building power to make UC concede as much as possible.
Student Researchers, after 20 years of fighting, have finally won the protections against arbitrary firing (and in many cases, deportation). The importance of this is impossible to overstate: even as we continue to bargain, SRs have been fired unjustly from their labs. Another key focus in our Student Researchers’ unionization campaign was protections in the workplace. During our strike, we won worker's comp/ workplace injury rights that SRs have needed for a long time. Student Researchers have shared the significance of this, but are being ignored by those leading a Vote No campaign.
We’ve also made important gains through our tentative agreements on paid leaves. These agreements would allow all working parents to take eight weeks of fully paid leave, which is two additional weeks for birthing parents and four additional weeks for non-birthing parents. We’d also get this same paid leave if we have a serious health issue arise or need to care for a sick family member.
Disabled workers, both rank and file and elected leaders, fought long and hard for the new rights and protections secured in the Access Needs/Reasonable Accommodations article. They made strategic decisions to win the biggest possible gains, and their wins should be celebrated instead of denigrated for not matching the exact language of our original proposals.
On wages, our strike has moved the University from offering a 7% raise over two years to offering a 29%-33% raise over two years (depending on your experience). That increase is unprecedented among other academic unions and other unions at the UC.
By all standards, these are incredibly significant improvements. Downplaying them serves to downplay the power of our strike. We believe our strike is powerful, which is why we are still leveraging that power to win more.
Against Demobilization
It is telling that the bargaining team members who have been losing votes since the strike began have also been advocating for partial striking and against collective actions. There is a contradictory narrative being pushed — on the one hand, they tell us that direct actions are “performative” and “a distraction from the real strike, which is withholding our labor.” Simultaneously, they advocate for partial striking — returning to do the research you want to do while withholding data from your PI. This is a betrayal of those of us who have actually been withholding our labor. Those of us building the power of our campaign through direct action have simultaneously been withholding ALL our labor — not doing our research, not advancing our careers, and at times facing retaliation as a result. Advocating for shortcuts is the most telling indication that those behind a No Vote have no plan to win.
Another form of demobilization taking place comes in the form of workers (including some bargaining team members) spreading misinformation to the press and on social media. For instance, in this campus newspaper, a bargaining team member mischaracterized the content of a proposal. Though the article went on to detail some of the facts about the proposal, quotes like these demobilize members by minimizing our victories at the bargaining table.
Our employer is the only one who benefits from statements meant to seed misinformation and sow division. And we should think carefully before mobilizing the UC to exploit them. We must have diversity of thought and tactics while presenting a united front against the boss.
Against Cynicism and Mistrust
The bargaining team members who have been losing recent votes have wrongly proliferated a belief that the other side of the bargaining team has ‘sold out’ the workers and made concessions at the bargaining table. A concession is when you give up something you already have. In this case, it would mean weakening existing contract articles or agreeing to wages below the rates set by the 2018 contract. We have made no concessions — despite UC’s efforts to claw back our sexual harassment and workload protections, and every article tentatively agreed to by our union is either as good or better than the current contract.
If bargaining team members “sold out” anyone, it is far from clear how they benefited from the arrangement. Such third-partying of bargaining team members and other elected leadership and the suggestion that these leaders have interests that are separate from those of other workers is a destructive and divisive tactic similar to right-wing anti-union rhetoric. Union leadership “selling out” members is an old trope, and stems from unfortunate but undeniable instances of corruption from organized labor’s past. Anybody who thinks our elected bargaining team has cut any kind of deal with UC management during these negotiations should share evidence of that before spreading such an extraordinary and insidious rumor. Our coworkers on the bargaining team have worked tirelessly to win the best contract possible and this cynical distrust does nothing to move our campaign forward.
A Vision to Win
The majority of our UAW 2865 and SRU bargaining teams decided not to accept UC’s “final” offer because they wanted members to have the opportunity to deliberate about what we have won, what we could still win, and where we go from here. Since then, rank and file and elected leaders have been escalating to directly target the decision-makers who have the power to redirect some of UC’s billions to the workers who do the majority of the teaching and research.
On December 14th, we will have a mass action at the Board of Regents meeting, and workers are organizing across Southern California to make them feel the urgency of our situation (find the RSVP form here). We must also continue striking and withholding our labor, including our grades, until we reach a fair contract.
Whenever our bargaining teams do decide to reach tentative agreements, we encourage other rank and file members to discuss what it means for you and all your coworkers, and whether or not it represents meaningful progress toward a more equitable UC.
For now, it’s time to fight the boss, not to demobilize with an anti-union Vote No campaign.
Signed by:
Reed Yalisove, UCB SR
Elias Bunting, UCD SR
Maura McDonagh, UCSF SR
Sophia Worthington-Kirsch, UCD ASE
Wes Westerfield, UCD ASE & SR
Brennan Gonering, UCD ASE
Ellen Gregory, UCD SR
Sarah Warren Gooding, UCD SR
Anna Cowie, UCD SR
Laurel Sebastian, UCD ASE
Alyssa Phillips, UCD SR
Tanner Stevenson, UCD SR
Stephanie Huard, UCSF SR
Ibis MacConnell, UCD SR
Jamie Ho, UCD SR
Tahsin Saffat, UCB ASE
Elinor Lewis , UCD SR
Anna Jo Muhich, UCD SR
Willa Gibson, UCD ASE
Porter Harrast, UCD ASE
Abigail Ray, UCD SR
Garrett Brown, UCB SR
Gwen Chodur, UCD SR
Alexa D'Ambra, UCD SR
Vincent Hiscock, UCI ASE
Jeremiah Lawson, UCI ASE
Mark K. Gradoni, UCI ASE
Leighton Smith, UCI ASE
Iris Rosenblum-Sellers, UCB ASE
Michelle Kim Gardner, UCI ASE
Rachel Alvelais, UCI ASE
Victor Ginsburg, UCB ASE
Meagan Olive, UCSF SR
Tia Chung-Swanson, UCI SR
Tova Valentine, UCD ASE
Eric Vin, UCSC ASE & SR
Abhik Pal, UCSD ASE & SR
Peter Kim, UCSD ASE & SR
Julia Badrya, UCI ASE
Zubenelgenubi Scott, UCSD SR
Nathan Sandford, UCB SR
Christian Hellum Bye, UCB ASE & SR
Bo Zhang, UCSD ASE & SR
Bhargavi Dameracharla, UCSD SR
Deryn LeDuke, UCSD SR
Emiko Gardiner, UCB ASE
Andrea Antoni, UCB SR
Luke Herman, UCSD SR
Katalin Berlow, UCB ASE
Alexander Rudenshiold, UCI ASE
Anna Wang, UCSD ASE
Anna Pusack, UCB ASE
Udayan Tandon, UCSD ASE & SR
Wenshan Luo, UCSD SR
Jean Torres, UCI ASE
Diana Smith, UCSD SR
Arman Azedi, UCI ASE
Harrison Mitchell, UCSD ASE
Hannah Rattu Mandias, UCSD SR
Eric Jankowski, UCB SR
Kevin Gonzalez, UCSD SR
Julia Zuo, UCSB SR
Claire Mirocha, UCB SR
True Gibson, UCI ASE
Claire Mastrangelo, UCB ASE & SR
Vilas Winstein, UCB SR
Aidan Kelley, UCB ASE
James Hasbany, UCD ASE
Emily Weintraut, UCD ASE & SR
Daniel Weinberg, UCB SR
Richard Conk, UCB SR
Alex Borowsky, UCR SR
Maxwell Poore , UCSD ASE & SR
Patrick McBurnie, UCI ASE
Brad Price, UCSB SR
Charlie Gunn, UCI ASE
Maya Homsy King, UCB ASE
Kishore Patra, UCB ASE
Nikita Prokhorov , UCI ASE
Joe Costello, UCSB SR
Ellie Coale, UCD SR
Elizabeth Hazen, UCB SR
Sean Clair, UCB SR
Tyler Inskeep, UCR SR
Jacqueline Beechert, UCB SR
Yuan Yao, UCB ASE
Gary Chan, UCSF SR
Cody Bekkering, UCD SR
Jacob Elafandi, UCB SR
Samuel Hoelscher, UCSF SR
Stratton Georgoulis, UCD SR
Dillon Travis, UCSD ASE & SR
Natalie LeBaron, UCB SR
Danielle De La Pascua, UCD ASE
Collin Sanborn, UCB SR
Nathan Conlon, UCSD ASE
Casey Li, UCLA ASE
Daniel Rothchild, UCB ASE & SR
Juan Flores, UCD SR
Sarah Wooders, UCB SR
Linnea Dolph, UCD ASE & SR
Theodoros Ntounias, UCSD ASE & SR
Valerie McGraw, UCB SR
Benjamin Wheeler, UCSF SR
Eric Thai, UCSD ASE & SR
Ian Kinzel, UCR ASE
Ravi Fernando, UCB SR
Jacob Sebastian, UCB SR
Megan Cole, UCI ASE
Christopher A. Strong, UCB SR
Alex Burka, UCB ASE
Cambria Chou-Freed , UCSF SR
Claire Whitaker, UCR SR
Stephanie Collins, UCB SR
Katelyn Malae, UCI ASE
Matin Yarmand, UCSD ASE & SR
Alexander Schedel, UCB ASE
Max Johnson, UCSD ASE
Ziad Jowhar, UCSF SR
Danial Shariat, UCB SR
Shawn Christensen , UCD ASE & SR
Zoë Bell, UCB SR
Anna Coerver, UCB SR
Angel Balam Benítez-Mata , UCI SR
Scott Eustice, UCB SR
Abou Sharmouta, UCD ASE
Ely Sandine, UCB SR
Annika Page, UCB ASE & SR
Maya Lopez-Ichikawa, UCSF SR
Jay Zussman, UCSF SR
Sophie Orr, UCD SR
Marcus Harland-Dunaway, UCR SR
Enta Zift, UCD ASE
Andres Rivero Gamez, UCSD SR
Elena Suglia, UCD SR
Brandon Blackburn, UCI ASE
Gawarlu Janizar, UCD ASE
Sebastián Yépez Rodríguez, UCI ASE & SR
Brent Chick, UCSD SR
James Butler, UCB SR
Michaela Murray, UCB SR
Ni-ma (Jessie) Cao, UCI ASE & SR
David Chu, UCB SR
Julian Arnheim, UCI SR
Deepan Thiruppathy , UCSD SR
Lou (Finnin) Gwei, UCSF SR
Anya Bouzida, UCSD SR
Daniel Heinz, UCSD SR
Sneha Rao, UCSF SR
Flynn Mixdorf, UCI ASE
Julia Zuo, UCSB SR
Stephanie Leal, UCSD SR
Grant Goldman, UCSF SR