Building power to address the issues that matter to you.

Daily Overtime, Doubletime and Turnaround Time for Stagehands after this group had been excluded from this important win in our last contract fight. UPTE’s previous leadership left them hanging for 2 years - President Russell was able to work with Stagehands across the state to pressure UC to negotiate a settlement in 6 months.

UPTE membership has increased by 25% - more than 2,250 members, in just 2 years - after years of steady decline that began even before COVID. This has shown increasing power to our employer, while allowing us to create important new staff positions to support our incredible new team of member leaders.

The 500+ Unit and Workplace Representatives we have recruited and trained is the reason for our success and the foundation for continuing to win more and build power for years to come. We know our power doesn’t come from a handful of brilliant leaders but from supporting and empowering our members to come together and advocate for themselves. These leaders are what will enable us to win the best contracts in UPTE history, quickly.

Our plan to win the best contracts in UPTE history, quickly

We are in a stronger place for our 2024 contract negotiations than ever, thanks to the victories we have helped to facilitate over the past 2 years. Our Unit and Workplace reps engaged 4,000 members in a pre-bargaining survey and nearly 6,000 - and counting - in our ongoing bargaining survey. By contrast, in 2017, only 2,500 members participated in our bargaining survey.

When our bargaining survey is complete, we will release a draft Contract Platform for comment, and then will ask you to ratify it. We will also ask you to directly elect your bargaining team representative, rather than only electing delegates to a bargaining conference, as UPTE had done in the past. We plan to expand our UC bargaining team from 17 to 26 members, bringing in more voices in order to make sure your concerns are heard at the table.

Through bargaining sessions open to everyone, meetings facilitated by our Unit and Workplace representatives, and virtual Town Halls, we will keep you informed as we begin bargaining in mid 2024, making sure that we are prepared to demonstrate our determination to the University - including asking you to authorize us to call a strike in larger numbers than ever before, if necessary - and win more, more quickly than ever before. We need to be ready by the time our contract expires so that we don’t go without raises as we did in 2017 and 2018.

We have been making similar progress for our members at Lawrence Livermore Lab, Butte College, College of Sequoias, and Mt San Jacinto College.

At Lawrence Livermore Lab, we have convened a Stewards Council, with representatives from each department, in order to increase membership engagement and prepare for negotiations in 2024. This is especially important after negotiations under UPTE’s previous leadership won only 11.25% in pay increases between 2020 and 2024, leaving our members at the Lab far behind inflation and other UPTE contracts.

Part Time Faculty at MSJC won 17% in raises, forcing the District to pay back-pay, winning improved committee stipends, and more with additional support and resources from UPTE staff, after years of having to organize on their own. Part Time Faculty at COS are following the lead of members at UC by preparing their own pre-bargaining survey to help engage members early and inform their bargaining survey.

Vote Organize for Power to continue building a powerful, professional, and democratic Union that can win better contracts, bring thousands more workers into our Union, and help us solve problems at work every day.