Current and Past Updates

On every UC campus, workers in dozens of different roles are bargaining for contracts that will protect and improve our jobs. Together, we are 40,000 Research and Public Service Professionals (RPSPs), Academic Student Employees (ASEs), and Student Services and Advising Professionals (SSAPs) keeping UC’s educational, research, and public service mission alive every day. Rather than working with us to ensure that we can continue doing those jobs to the best of our abilities, management has...

Before diving into this bargaining update, we’d like to express solidarity with the people of Minnesota and condemn the Trump administration’s lethal violence against communities across the country. Many people in our own SSAP, RPSP, and broader UC communities are impacted by the ongoing terrorization of immigrant communities, and it is more important than ever to continue caring for each other and taking collective action. You can read our union’s larger statement of solidarity here....

Last Thursday and Friday, January 15th-16th, RPSPs and SSAPs proposed eight contract articles at the bargaining table while management proposed only four. Because management has yet to resolve their Unfair Labor Practices (ULPs), SSAPs and RPSPs are continuing to plan a Strike Authorization Vote (SAV), which will be held from February 5th through February 13th. Hundreds of SSAPs and RPSPs have pledged to help organize a strong majority to vote Yes on Day 1 of our ULP Strike Authorization Vote...

Following the 3 Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charges filed against UC management, we were able to reach some major tentative agreements (see details below and the bargaining tracker here)! However, management’s bad faith bargaining remains an obstacle to making progress on many priorities. It is clear that the only way to get UC to honor their obligation to bargain in good faith is to continue escalating. To that end, in response to management’s unlawful behavior, the bargaining teams are...

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: Despite having a legal obligation to provide us with information about our wages and...

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,...

We're excited to share a new form of communication that some of your fellow RPSPs wish to trial. We hope you will enjoy this Newsletter which covers the Nov 20th rallies and recent bargaining updates!

For the past few months of bargaining, UC management has been stalling, not only by failing to provide meaningful responses to our proposals, but also failing to fulfill their legal obligation to provide SSAPs with crucial information we requested as early as May 2025. In order to fulfill their duty to bargain in good faith, management is required to provide the union with information about our wages and working conditions; failure to do so is an unfair labor practice (ULP). How can the...

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...

Last Thursday, November 20th, thousands of Academic Student Employees (ASEs), Research and Public Service Professionals (RPSPs), and Student Services and Advising Professionals (SSAPs) rallied together statewide across every campus to let UC management know that academic employees and staff stand united and ready to do what’s necessary to achieve fair contracts. Speakers at each campus shared powerful experiences that revealed how priorities like fair wages, childcare benefits, and job...