Current and Past Updates

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...

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...

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...

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 past week, thousands of RPSPs voted and 98% voted Yes to ratify our initial bargaining demands! This powerful demonstration of unity and solidarity shows UC that RPSPs are ready to bargain for a fair contract. Today is the first SSAP & RPSP-UAW joint bargaining session. Strong RPSP participation has allowed us to move to the bargaining table more quickly, and shows our power when meeting with UC. For us to get a strong contract, RPSPs need to show our strength to UC by getting...

While RPSPs get ready to ratify our Initial Bargaining Demands to demonstrate our unity to UC, we just took another major step to strengthen our bargaining position: UC has agreed to meet RPSPs and our colleagues in SSAP-UAW (Student Services and Advising Professionals) at a joint bargaining table, beginning on October 29th! As we discussed in our last town hall, bargaining jointly with SSAPs will allow us to jump start negotiations and dramatically increase our power in numbers to advance our...

After thousands of our colleagues voted to form Research and Public Service Professionals-UAW (RPSP-UAW) last month, we are moving forward to negotiate with UC leadership and strengthen the University in the face of urgent challenges. To strengthen our position at the bargaining table, RPSPs will be voting to ratify our “Initial Bargaining Demands,” which represent the broad priorities of RPSPs as determined through thousands of conversations and surveys. View the demands drafted by the...

I am pleased to announce the members of the elected Research and Public Service Professional (RPSP-UAW) bargaining team. You can see the certified results here. RPSPs must now prepare to stand together to win a fair contract and strengthen the UC. The bargaining committee members are: Brianna Mcguire, Academic Program Management Officer at UCD Nikta Akhavan, Project Policy Analyst at UCB Erica Wilson, Project Policy Analyst at UCB Kimberly Schweigman, Research Compliance Analyst at UCLA Greg...

Since the start of this year, Research and Public Service Professionals have quickly moved one step after the other to reach the bargaining table and secure a greater say in our workplace in the face of funding cuts, lay-offs, and return-to-office mandates. I’m proud to share that nearly 700 of us RPSPs gathered at the town hall yesterday to thoroughly discuss how we can continue to organize, increase participation, and build a strong, representative union. As a part of that discussion, RPSPs...

At this point you may have already heard, a majority of RPSPs participated in the union election and overwhelmingly voted to form RPSP-UAW. Now, over 7,000 of us will soon meet UC at the bargaining table to also win a fair contract alongside 41,000 of our UC-UAW colleagues.  I want to invite you to a town hall on Thursday, September 25th where all RPSPs will meet to discuss our next steps. I am very excited to celebrate this historic win with you and my fellow co-workers. During this town hall...