What Led Us Here

This effort began when student services professionals started talking together about how to improve our working conditions and decided to organize with UAW. Through hundreds of conversations between coworkers, we have noticed many overlapping issues facing Student Services and Advising Professionals (SSAPs) and we are continuing to broaden our understanding as this effort progresses. In fall 2023, SSAP-UAW conducted a climate survey to learn about common issues among SSAPs and identify areas of our workplace that could be improved. Over 900 SSAPs responded. Below are some of the clearest issues experienced by SSAPs across all UC campuses.

Once our union is certified, SSAPs will conduct even more extensive surveys, townhalls, and other tools to enable a comprehensive dialogue regarding our bargaining demands. Every SSAP will have a voice in shaping our bargaining priorities.

We are joining UAW, the union that currently represents 48,000 Postdocs, Academic Researchers, Student Researchers and Academic Student Employees at the University of California. UAW has historically been one of the largest and most diverse unions in North America. Workers in UAW at UC have negotiated for sweeping improvements to their workplaces that touch on a wide variety of issues that also affect SSAPs. To read more about those improvements, you can visit:

  • Postdocs: Before/After Unionization Chart

      • Postdoc wages have increased by over $20,000 (an increase of over 50%) since the union was formed in 2010.

      • One of the strongest healthcare plans of all UC employees. 2% and 4% fixed increases on premiums. New benefits including IVF and acupuncture coverage. Health benefits at about 10X lower costs than at peer universities.

      • 24 days PTO and 12 sick days available on the first day of appointment, and 14 holidays.

  • Academic Researchers: Before/After Unionization Chart
      • Industry standard-setting protections against all forms of discrimination, harassment, and bullying
      • Transparent and equitable career advancement pathways
      • Greater federal research funding
  • Academic Student Employees: Contract Highlights
      • 25-80% wage increases over 2.5 years
      • A 27% increase to childcare subsidies
      • 8 weeks of fully paid parental leave

Compensation

74% of respondents to our climate survey do not feel that their pay reflects the value of their contributions. 

73% of respondents feel their pay is not enough to support them and/or their families.

Student Services and Advising Professionals’ salaries have not kept up with the cost of living. Our system of compensation also has major issues with transparency and inequity.

Equity at UC

Despite stated commitments to diversity and inclusion, UC falls short of fostering an institution that is truly equitable.

Achieving greater equity has been central to the rights and protections that UC Postdocs and Teaching Assistants have won through unionization. For example, other workers in UAW have improved equity at UC by:

  • Increasing pay transparency and equity
  • Guaranteeing experience-based wage increases and across-the-board yearly wage increases
  • Promoting gender equity in academia by winning increased time off and parental leave, flexible scheduling, and dependent health coverage at low cost.
  • Promoting trans inclusion by winning trans-inclusive healthcare and gender-neutral bathrooms.

Protections from discrimination & harassment

44% of respondents to our climate survey have experienced discrimination or harassment at UC.

Other UAW workers at UC have won major improvements to their protections against discrimination and harassment to ensure survivors’ careers are not jeopardized by reporting abusive behavior.

Once negotiated into the union contract, these protections became enforceable through the union grievance process. For example, when Sandra Koch was discriminated against as a pregnant Postdoc at UCLA, she filed a union grievance and rallied the support of her coworkers. UCLA reinstated her and her career is back on target; by the time Title IX would have investigated her situation, she would have lost her visa status and had to return to her home country. Read about Sandra’s experience in her own words.

All workers at UC deserve a respectful work environment. By forming a union, we could similarly negotiate for real recourse against discrimination and harassment. 

You can learn more about how higher education workers have improved equity by forming unions at workersequity.org.

Remote Work, Commute and Cost of Living

86% of respondents to our climate survey have struggled to afford housing near campus and/or have a long commute due to a salary that doesn’t keep up with the cost of living.

Due to the cost of living near UCs, many of us are forced to move further and further away from the campus, leading to longer and longer commute times. Additionally, remote policies vary by position or department. Some staff are fully remote while others are fully in person. We need equitable and flexible policies for remote work, as well as salaries that allow us to live where we work.

Workload + “Scope Creep”

85% of respondents to our climate survey have been asked or expected to do work outside the scope of their job without fair compensation. 

Through their legally-binding union contracts, workers in UAW at UC are able to ensure that they are appropriately compensated and classified when taking on additional job duties and responsibilities. Like these higher ed employees, SSAPs deserve the right to negotiate for workload protections and greater transparency in our job duties.

Career Advancement & Retention

70% of respondents to our climate survey have considered leaving their jobs because of better opportunities elsewhere. 

Many of the inadequate working conditions that are apparent from this climate survey are leading to problems with retention. We don’t have exact data on turnover, but we know that UC is not doing nearly enough to retain Student Services Professionals who maintain important institutional knowledge and relationships. As SSAPs leave their positions, remaining staff are left with unmanageable workloads and students lose access to the support they depend on. UC’s lack of commitment to retaining SSAPs is harmful to students and the university as a whole. 

 A Stronger Political Voice

Unionizing will also give Student Services and Advising Professionals a stronger political voice to affect change within and beyond our workplaces. For example, unionized UC higher education workers have: 

  • Sponsored AB2350 to increase protections against pregnancy discrimination and has also worked to increase legal protections against sexual harassment.
  • Helped pass the CA DREAM act which gave financial aid to undocumented students to attend public universities and relieves them of non resident tuition.

By forming a union, SSAPs would gain a stronger collective voice to influence political decisions that effect our jobs and our society.

 

What issues do you want to address?

If you are facing any workplace issues, schedule a meeting with a member of the organizing committee to talk about it. The more we all discuss our working conditions and how we want to change them, the stronger our union will be. Add your voice to the conversation!

Book a meeting with a SSAP in the organizing committee