News: Looks like recognition strike issue is resolved Friday, December 10, 2021
The union representing student workers has posted (as of December 8) an agreement with the university concerning recognition of certain groups of student workers. As a compromise, the document indicates that the university does not concede that the disputed group of workers would be considered as employees under state law for purposes of union recognition, and that the agreement is not a precedent. Even if state law does not require the university to recognize certain groups for purposes of collective bargaining, the university can voluntarily make such recognition. There is some ambiguity as to what might happen in the future if, say, the union were to file an unfair labor practice case related specifically to the disputed employees. Would PERB possibly decline jurisdiction? One suspects that such considerations are more of interest to legal types than as practical concerns. In any case, a deal has been reached. Below is the agreement: [Compromise elements in boldface.]
The University and the Union agree to resolve the request for recognition petition (“Petition”) filed by the Union (SF-RR-1022-H) as follows: The parties agree that the new Graduate Student Researcher Unit (“Unit”) at all University of California campuses, research programs and units, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will be defined as described in this agreement below. I. Inclusion in the Unit - As a compromise in this matter, and without admitting that these graduate students should have previously been categorized as employees, the parties agree that the following group of graduate students meet the definition of employee or higher education employee under HEERA §3562 (e) and will be included in the unit: A. Graduate Student Researcher – Category of Employees 1. Definition: Graduate student who performs research as a condition of receiving financial remuneration from funding generated by the University in an academic department or research unit, provided that the graduate student is performing this funded research under the control of the University and under the specific direction of a faculty 222
UCLA Faculty Association Blog: 4th Quarter 2021
