This past week from December 16th through December 19th SSAPs and RPSPs jointly bargained with UC management for four days, completing our scheduled bargaining sessions for 2025. Unfortunately, UC Management is not engaging in good faith bargaining and as a result, preventing progress on our priority issues. Last week, SSAP-UAW filed an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) against the university for its ongoing refusal to fulfill their legal duty to provide us with information needed for bargaining, and a similar Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) for the RPSP unit will be filed in the immediate future, and it is clear that only by increasing pressure on management will SSAPs and RPSPs be able to bring the UC to the table to negotiate a fair contract in a timely manner.
In this four day session, we reached two tentative agreements on Travel Reimbursements and Performance Evaluations. These tentative agreements, respectively, guarantee that SSAPs and RPSPs will not bear the burden of work-related travel costs and have the right to rebut and contest incorrect or discriminatory performance evaluations. As with many aspects of this negotiation, management attempted to make the negotiated language unenforceable through the grievance and arbitration process; after 14 passes, we were finally able to agree on language that holds management accountable to following this provision of the contract.
At the very end of the four day session, management also moved toward us on Respectful Work Environment and Non-Discrimination, but refused to agree to our reasonable proposal containing the very same language that Academic Student Employees TA’d the week before. For the first time, their proposals provided for full enforceability through grievance and arbitration, but more progress is necessary to reach agreement. SSAPs and RPSPs will continue to fight for enforceability throughout our contract so that management cannot ignore the rights and benefits we negotiate.
Meanwhile, we are still waiting for management’s responses on twenty-four articles, including high priority issues like wages and benefits. Continuing to pressure the UC to begin bargaining in good faith will require the collective participation of every RPSP and SSAP in the new year. Even as we prepare for winter closure, each of us can do the following as we move into 2026:
- Sign up for a short “CAT” (Contract Action Team) training to learn how to stay up-to-date, talk to your coworkers, and participate in the bargaining process
- Look through the online Bargaining Tracker to see the other proposals RPSPs and SSAPs made during this session, including Transfer and Promotion, Reasonable Accommodations, Immigration, Workload, Parking & Transportation, and Technology.
