Details of UC Student Employee Contract Revealed

More details on the contract between the University of California and the United Auto Workers Local 2865 were released Friday after members of the UAW local voted to ratify the contract Thursday. The union represents more than 12,000 UC teaching assistants, graders, and tutors statewide.

The contract, which will impact more than 1,200 TAs, graders, and tutors at UCSB, was tentatively agreed upon by the two sides on Oct. 1, one day after the previous contract had expired and the UAW threatened to strike. Academic student employees (ASEs) provide the majority of the face-to-face instruction to undergraduates at the university, according to the union.

The two-year contract calls for a five percent across-the-board wage increase; provisions for paid personal, sick, bereavement, and family leaves for salaried ASEs; extension of vision and dental care to graduate ASEs; and enforcement of workload rights by appeal to a neutral third party, which would theoretically help prevent ASEs from being overwhelmed by work.

Union members voted to ratify the new contract by a 96 percent margin after three days of statewide voting.

Other elements of the fourth contract worked out between the two sides, according to the union, include protections against discrimination on the basis of gender identity and pregnancy, enhanced employment rights, transparency in hiring and working conditions, and childcare subsidies for all ASEs.