Student Researchers United-UAW (SRU-UAW) was a union representing

student A student is a person enrolled in a school or other educational institution. In the United Kingdom and most commonwealth countries, a "student" attends a secondary school or higher (e.g., college or university); those in primary or elementar ...

research Research is "creativity, creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular att ...

ers at the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

(UC). It was part of the

United Auto Workers The International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, better known as the United Auto Workers (UAW), is an American labor union that represents workers in the United States (including Puerto Rico ...

. The union was composed of more than 17,000 people who work across 10 UC campuses and the

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), commonly referred to as the Berkeley Lab, is a United States Department of Energy National Labs, United States national laboratory that is owned by, and conducts scientific research on behalf of, t ...

. They were the largest 2021 addition to the UAW, accounting for 0.1% of union members in the US, and, according to organizers, were "the largest academic student employee union in US history." The union later joined UAW 2865 and ceased to be an independent entity.

History

Beginnings

Research assistants were not considered employees in California until the passage of state legislation from Nancy Skinner, SB 201, in 2017. The UC opposed this legislation. Planning for the union began in early 2020.

2021

To advocate for the union, organizers submitted more than 10,000 union authorization cards to California's Public Employers Relations Board and gathered more than 5,000 signatures from student researchers on a resolution in support of union recognition. In October 2021, a group of congresspeople that included a majority of the

California congressional delegation Since California became a U.S. state in 1850, it has sent congressional delegations to the United States Senate and United States House of Representatives. Each state elects two senators to serve for six years, and members of the House to two-yea ...

and was led by

Katie Porter Katherine Moore Porter (born January 3, 1974) is an American politician, law professor, and lawyer who is the U.S. representative from California's 45th congressional district since 2019. She is the first Democrat to be elected to represent the ...

sent a letter to

Michael V. Drake Michael Vincent Drake (born July 9, 1950) is an American university administrator and physician who is the 21st president of the University of California. From 2014 to June 2020, he was the 15th president of Ohio State University. From 2005 to 2 ...

, president of the UC, in support of the union. A group of 49 state legislators led by

Buffy Wicks Buffy Jo Christina Wicks (born August 10, 1977) is an American politician who serves in the California State Assembly. A Democrat, she represents the 15th Assembly District, which includes the cities of Berkeley, Piedmont, Richmond, San Pablo ...

sent a similar letter on November 18, 2021. In November 2021, a majority of student workers voted to strike. The University of California recognized the union in December 2021.

2022

SRU-UAW members were among the 36,500 academic workers who participated in a strike authorization vote that concluded on November 2, 2022, with more than 97% approving. The strike began on November 14.

References

{{reflist Trade unions affiliated with the United Auto Workers University of California 2021 establishments in California Trade unions established in 2021 Trade unions in California Tertiary education trade unions