RPSP and SSAPs kicked off 2026 with more bargaining for our first union contract. Unfortunately, management has continued to bargain in bad faith. The University has repeatedly failed to meet its legal obligations, limiting progress towards agreement on our contract. In response, we have filed Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charges.

Our latest ULP charges cites three ways UC has failed to meet their obligations:

1. Despite having a legal obligation to provide us with information about our wages and working conditions, they continue to ignore Requests for Information we made as far back as May 2025. Withholding this information prevents meaningful bargaining. How can we come to an agreement on our wages if we don’t even know how much the average SSAP or RPSP currently earns?
2. Instead of bargaining with us to create a contract that addresses our unique needs as RPSPs or SSAPs, UC continues to unlawfully tell us we need to accept agreements they’ve made with other UC staff unions. Obviously our union was not involved in the negotiation of those terms, and to insist we accept them constitutes bad faith bargaining. We formed our union in order to negotiate a contract that is responsive to our unit’s current needs and priorities.
3. The university has refused to meet its legal burden to negotiate with us over policy changes with substantial impacts on staff in our units.

Management’s refusal to negotiate in good faith requires us to hold UC accountable. Filing the ULP is an important legal step to force UC to meet its responsibilities, but it’s going to take each of us stepping up and defending our rights to ensure we end up with a strong contract. You can move our bargaining process forward by:

• Signing 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

• Taking the Retirement and Healthcare Benefits Survey to share your priorities and help inform decision-making in our bargaining over benefits

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.

Into the New Year!

From December 3rd – 5th, RPSPs and SSAPs met UC management for our third, collective negotiating session and our first marathon, multi-day session. RPSPs and SSAPs made the most of it by increasing the amount of Tentative Agreements to 12 (out of 43 currently-proposed articles) and discussing 21 separate articles in total. 

This week was an especially significant milestone in our negotiations as we proposed articles on Wages, Retirement, and Health Benefits. The anxiety and suffering caused by years of stagnant wages, barriers to career growth, inaccessible and unaffordable healthcare, and a worsening retirement plan requires immediate action. Our articles aim to address these systemic issues by proposing:

1. 1. Wage Steps and Guaranteed Annual Increases – Our pay should go up as we gain experience in our roles, and wage steps make sure that happens on top of an annual, across-the-board adjustment that keeps up with inflation
   2. Improved Retirement Benefits and Options – We all deserve to retire in comfort and security, which is why we’ve proposed an employer-funded 403b account for all RPSPs and SSAPs to boost savings as well as the choice of stronger-tiered pension plans (lower employee contribution and earlier retirement) or savings choice plans with higher UC contributions
   3. Health Care Benefits You Can Afford and Use – Elimination of premiums, lower deductibles and out-of-pocket caps, practical mental health care benefits, and UC-funded HRAs to pay for costs not covered in your chosen plan/geographic area

These proposals reflect our basic principles of fair, healthy, and safe working conditions and the recognition that our labor is essential to the well-being of UC and California. Our demands are not about greed or selfishness, but rather sustainability and justice for all with the urgency the situation demands. After all, if UC can afford to give its president a six-digit raise and spend tens of millions of dollars on new homes for its chancellors this year, then surely, they can afford to pay us our worth!

Unfortunately, management’s response at the bargaining table has been anything but fair or swift. The pressure from our recent proposals and especially our public rallies forced UC to schedule more dates, but they arrived with only a handful of proposals. They also failed to respond to the information requests we made that are critical for good faith bargaining over key issues such as compensation and healthcare. And even when they do engage, their movement is minimal, at best. It’s clear to us that they intend to stall and see if we’re serious about our demands. With a four-day bargaining session coming up December 16-19th, it’s time to tell UC to start bargaining in good faith and negotiate a fair contract!

It’s going to take each of us doing our part to win the compensation and contract we deserve. Here’s what you can do between now and the 16th:

1. 1. 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
   2. Take the Retirement and Healthcare Benefits Survey to share your priorities and help inform decision-making in our bargaining over benefits
   3. Talk to at least two of your coworkers and make sure they join you in #1 and #2

On Wednesday, UC management showed up to bargain with Research and Public Service Professionals (RPSPs) and Student Services and Advising Professionals (SSAPs) with seven proposals — the most they’ve ever brought to a bargaining session. While at first it appeared they had heard our message that it’s time to get serious, the content of their proposals proved otherwise. Their opening wages proposal completely fails to address the soaring cost of living and their counter-proposal on Childcare Benefits simply hyperlinked what is already on the UC website. SSAPs and RPSPs unionized to help UC to live up to its mission and values; we are bargaining for meaningful improvements, not more of the same.

Today, we have a critical opportunity to put UC on course to a strong contract. Join the rally — rain or shine! — to urge leadership to bargain fairly and join workers in the larger fight against the federal government’s attacks on higher education.

The progress we make in the next bargaining sessions will be influenced by how much participation management sees from all 40,000 of us together rallying on every UC campus, TODAY, November 20th, at 4pm.

RPSPs completed our second joint bargaining session with UC management this Friday, November 14th. Through two sessions, UC agreed to extend the five Tentative Agreements that our SSAPs partners negotiated to benefit RPSPs (see bargaining tracker). Now that RPSPs and SSAPs have aligned our campaigns, we are bringing more speed and power to the bargaining table than either could on our own while UC continues to stall and present inadequate proposals.

Now is the time for each one of us to show UC leadership that we are united in our effort to win strong contracts that increase retention of the workers who carry out UC’s mission.

RSVP to join the rally for our rights and futures!

Friday’s progress:

**Visit the SSAP & RPSP Bargaining Tracker to see the details of everything exchanged up until this point in collective bargaining.

UC management’s counterproposals to Discipline & Dismissal and Grievance & Arbitration lacked meaningful movement towards our priorities. In our sessions so far, they’ve shown up late, unprepared, and without any urgency. 

If management doesn’t believe all RPSPs care about fighting for greater control and flexibility in our work arrangements, better wages, and our other demands, they won’t seriously negotiate. 

We have five bargaining dates left before 2025 ends. How much progress we make in these next bargaining sessions depends on how much participation management sees from all 12,000 SSAPs and RPSPs in our rally together on November 20th.

Good news – RPSPs and SSAPs have reached an agreement (link) with UC management that locks in planned healthcare premium reductions, while freezing rates for the plans whose costs UC had intended to increase in 2026. Between the 2025 and 2026 rates, the lower premium will be applied to the available plans in UCPath. These rates will apply for all of 2026. As we do not have a contract yet, SSAPs and RPSPs may show up as unrepresented in UCPath, so use the table linked here for guidance when enrolling in your healthcare plan.

Even if you have already entered your choices for 2026, you can continue to make changes until Open Enrollment closes at 5 p.m. on Friday, November 21, 2025.

Though this agreement is an important, short-term victory (through 2026), healthcare costs are rising rapidly across the country and especially at UC. SSAPs and RPSPs will continue to build our power to make sure management pays its fair share of these costs in our contracts for 2027 and beyond. RSVP to the rally on Nov 20th, 4pm at a UC campus near you!

This Wednesday, October 29th, marked the first joint bargaining session in which Student Services and Advising Professionals (SSAP-UAW) and Research and Public Service Professionals (RPSP-UAW) negotiated together, sitting across from UC management to campaign for fair contracts for us all. Through joining forces, over 12,000 staff across the UC  now wield significantly more bargaining power and can leverage it to win strong first contracts and advance our shared priorities even faster.

Also at this bargaining session, SSAPs and RPSPs made a proposal on Leaves of Absence, including expanded parental, bereavement, and military leave. Additionally, we proposed a groundbreaking article on childcare subsidies to offset the additional costs borne by working parents at UC–an article which would contribute to making our careers at UC equitable and sustainable. 

UC management proposed on Leaves for Union Business and countered our Union Security and Union Access Rights articles. Notably, management’s counters included significant limitations on our ability to organize in our workplace.

To see the details of all the article proposals, visit our Bargaining Tracker. The first page of the bargaining tracker has an explanation of how to use it to learn about the bargaining process thus far. If you have any questions, reach out to schedule a meeting with a contract action team member.

By forming a union, SSAPs and RPSPs have ensured that management cannot make unilateral changes to our working conditions, which includes unilateral increases to healthcare premiums. Yesterday the UC bargaining team confirmed that because of this, no one will see increases to healthcare rates next year. We are actively working with management to try to ensure that no one is negatively impacted by locking in 2025 rates for the duration of contract negotiations.

To make progress on any of these issues, it’s imperative that we take collective action. Join your UC-UAW colleagues at the November 20th contract campaign escalation rally! RSVP here.