For Immediate Release:

Another, more accessible labor contract is possible: University of California Disabled Student Workers form “Justice Coalition” Reject Future Tentative Agreement, Demand Cost of Living Adjustment, Access Needs, and COVID specific protections in United Auto Workers (UAW) 2865 and UAW5810 and Student Researchers United -UAW  contracts.

Media Contact: Justice Coalition, Julia Metraux, juliametraux@gmail.com 

Davis, Irvine, Berkeley, Los Angeles, California, December 1, 2022 - Three weeks into a historic strike by 48,000 academic workers across the University of California, a “Justice Coalition” of student workers with disabled students at the forefront are making a call for union bargaining team members and rank and file to maintain disability justice needs, living wage demands, and labor rights within their contracts currently under negotiation. The contracts present an equally historic possibility to enshrine expanded disability rights beyond the scope of the insufficient Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).  

Specifically, student workers have proposed a revolutionary "Access Needs" article, which builds on and strengthens the language of the existing “Reasonable Accommodations” article in the previous UAW 2865 contract. In particular, it aims to secure universal remote access for all academic workers without requiring medical documentation, a significant barrier to many workers simply seeking equitable and safe access to their workplaces. A second proposed "Public Health and Safety" article would specify COVID-19 protections within the contract due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic which has made it difficult for many student workers to safely access teaching and education. Building on recent court rulings which have deemed in-school masking bans illegal, the Coalition calls for the immediate repeal of a UC ban on instructors asking students to mask. In the face of pressure to compromise on these articles, student workers have refused the dismissal of these demands as a “minority issue” by union representatives. The group compiled a “Disability Justice Articles FAQ” to address common misconceptions and explain their necessity.

The Coalition objected to a future Tentative Agreement (TA) decided upon yesterday by UAW 2865 and other bargaining teams that reduced the wage floor of 54K to 43K and removed cost of living adjustments and childcare subsidies. Rank and file workers have demanded these changes for the past several years to alleviate the extreme rent burden faced by student workers across the state of California. The inadequacies of the previous contract spurred a wildcat strike across all UC campuses in early 2020 and are set to be enshrined again in the proposed contract language. The TA also dismantled the proposed Access Needs Article, preserving the UC’s burdensome requirement for medical documentation, eliminating centralized funding, and removing language that would have required UC meet the bare minimum set by the ADA law. And just last week, in a mass meeting of over 500 people, workers expressed their full on rejection of the wage proposal and their commitment to continue to organize around a just and accessible workplace.

Megan Lynch, founder of UC Access Now which organizes for access needs across the UCs articulates the urgency of the “Universal Online Access" provision: “a highest common denominator accessibility [should] be the default throughout the University of California system. Online accessibility is crucial now at a time when UC has increased barriers to accessibility in general as well having dropped mask mandates, refused to renovate old building HVAC to MERV-13 or above standard, and phased out PCR testing for COVID.” The Justice Coalition insists all campuses should work to meet the requirements of their workers with the greatest accessibility needs instead of settling for the low bar set by the ADA.

An anonymous disabled PhD student worker at UCLA expressed great concern in response to the decision: “Under federal employment law, including as expressed by the federally funded Job Accommodation Network (JAN), employers are not required to request medical documentation for workers to receive disability-related access needs. The UC’s unnecessary requirement for medical documentation often requires months to generate and thousands of dollars in testing and consultation fees, none of which are covered by the university.” Even after this long, burdensome, and often costly process, the University can further require that workers be examined by a UC-appointed healthcare provider, once again putting the onus on disabled people to explain their condition and justify their needs.

They added: “As a public university committed to diversity, UC’s requirement for medical documentation stands in opposition to UCOP’s Regents Policy 4400: Policy on University of California Diversity Statement, which explicitly acknowledges ‘the acute need to remove barriers to the recruitment, retention, and advancement of talented students…from historically excluded populations who are currently underrepresented.’”

The Coalition has also galvanized popular support around the “Public Health and Safety” article. Despite garnering over 450 signatures on an open letter to the union bargaining team in support of COVID-19 protections, the various UAW bargaining teams still have not presented these demands at the bargaining table. Adam J. Moore, MPH, a disabled PhD student at UC Davis studying virology and public health and coauthor on multiple peer-reviewed COVID-19 studies, highlights the continued reality of the pandemic: “We are seeing over 2000 deaths per week from COVID and more than 23 million people living with Long COVID, including increased cardiovascular risks, kidney and neurological problems. I’m at high risk for severe outcomes. I am being forced to decide between my career and my health. I wear my N95 diligently, but every time I go to class or lab, I have to worry about the numerous unmasked people around me, when I should get tested if they look or sound sick, or if I have to quarantine to keep my partner at home safe.”

Moore added: “Studies show universal masking works and we cannot rely on optional one-way masking to keep us safe. Personal responsibility will not end this pandemic. The continued, uncontrolled spread of COVID-19 over the last year has clearly shown we cannot rely solely on vaccines. We need to use more layers of protection, like masking, routine testing, online access, and ventilation upgrades, at the population level.”

Instructors at the UC are currently prohibited from asking their students to mask, a move made immediately after the UC lifted mask mandates. Citing the insufficiency of one-way masking, the "Public Health and Safety" article specifies academic workers’ rights to require universal masking in their classrooms, a right which has already been deemed legal under the ADA in several cases. The article also calls for ventilation upgrades across UC facilities, the continuation of free PCR testing (slated to end at certain UCs in coming weeks), and online access to work for any worker who requests it.

The Justice Coalition will continue to object to a Tentative Agreement (TA) which is not sufficient in providing disabled workers with equitable protections and workplace safety. Moving forward, the Justice Coalition will continue to organize union members, maintain discussions with bargaining team members to urge them to reconsider the TA, and fervently campaign for a “no vote” on the proposed contract if necessary to ensure that disability justice needs, living wage demands, and labor rights are adequately represented in the contract.

*This statement was created based on a meeting held on Thursday with disabled graduate student union workers.

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