After eight months of negotiations with the University of California, United Auto Workers Local 4811 ratified several new contracts for the union’s members on March 20. The contracts are effective immediately and will expire on Dec. 31, 2029.
Of the 21,161 UAW 4811 members who participated in the ratification process, 91.5% voted in favor. The vote was open from March 17 to March 20.
UAW 4811 represents over 48,000 academic and student researchers, teaching assistants, tutors, and postdocs across all 10 UC campuses. Three separate bargaining units represented the union at the negotiating table, including the Academic Student Employees, Student Services and Advising Professionals, and Research and Public Service Professionals.
The union held a “last chance” picket across all campuses on the day before reaching a tentative agreement with the UC. At UC San Diego, an estimated 600 individuals participated in the rally, which was held in front of Geisel Library.
The union’s new contract meets workers’ priorities on “protections for international workers, fair and stable pay, and job security,” per the UAW 4811 website.
Prior to this contract, teaching assistants had no guaranteed wage increases. The new contract guarantees a pay raise for salaried employees, including teaching assistants and graduate student researchers. TAs and graduate student researchers will receive a wage increase totaling up to 12.41% and 44.93% over the contract’s duration. General adjustments and experience-based increases will apply.
Similarly, beginning this year, all hourly workers in the union will receive systemwide raises between 10% and 62% over the life of the contract. This eliminates existing hourly disparities of up to $7 an hour.
The contract additionally promises to phase out wage tiers by 2029. The tier system previously set salaries for TAs and GSRs based on the campus on which they work. Starting October 2026, tutors and readers will also be paid on systemwide scale rates instead of campus-dependent salaries. The first rate, $22.81 per hour, will be enacted in Fall 2026.
The contract guarantees a 50% appointment rate for Ph.D. and Master’s of Fine Arts students in a TA position. The contract’s requirements also grant GSRs a protected right to 50% appointments, per contract requirements. Prior to the contract, the UC had continuously offered TA appointments below 50%.
The contract further achieves “Groundbreaking Protections for International Workers,” UAW 4811 wrote. The contract establishes a new $400,000 legal consultation fund to support international members seeking legal services spanning “advice on status change, detention, visa questions, and referral to reduced-cost immigration attorneys.” It also requires the UC administration to notify all workers when Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials are on campus. Further, the UC will not surrender workers’ immigration status without a judicial warrant. Workers who temporarily lose their visa status now have guaranteed rehiring rights, gaining up to three weeks of paid leave for travel for visa renewals or immigration processes.
As of April 2025, over 90 international scholars and recent graduates across the UC system had their visas revoked.
UAW 4811 alleged unfair labor practice charges against the university, claiming that the UC was bargaining in bad faith and delaying contract negotiations. On Feb. 13, the union passed a ULP strike authorization vote, in which more than 93.3% of voters supported a potential strike.
During the “last chance” picket at UCSD, protesters held signs that read, “UAW prepared to strike; unfair labor practice,” and chanted, “Shut it down.”
Mari Williams, a biomedical sciences GSR, spoke to The UCSD Guardian regarding the importance of the union’s demands in its negotiations with the university.
“We deserve raises that beat inflation,” Williams said. “And we deserve immigration rights so we can work here safely.”
The UC issued a press release about the tentative contract agreements on March 14. Missy Matella, associate vice president for Systemwide Employee and Labor Relations for the UC Office of the President, wrote on the office’s reaction to the agreements.
“We are grateful to achieve agreements that mutually benefit the University’s academic student employees and new staff units,” the press release read. “These agreements reflect the tireless work of the bargaining teams on both sides of the table that remained committed to productive, good-faith negotiations throughout bargaining. Reaching this outcome on these complex contracts required extraordinary trust, dedication, and partnership.”
Brianna McGuire, an RPSP-UAW Bargaining Committee co-chair from UC Davis, wrote about the significance of the contract’s ratification in a UAW 4811 press release on March 20.
“Having a union contract in place means that UC is now a place where we have agency to build sustainable careers,” she wrote. “It’s an incredible feeling to know that when 40,000 workers have each other’s backs, we can have a say in our working conditions and ensure that our contributions are valued. Our contracts will make UC stronger as we serve the university’s students, community, and research mission.”
Prior to the ratification, UAW 4811 representatives at the “last chance” rally said that if the UC did not meet the union’s contract-term demands before Sunday, its workers would go on strike.
Francis Galang, a TA and GSR in UCSD’s department of communication, spoke with The Guardian before the rally.
“Right now is a time when the administration is attacking universities all over the United States, and the UC has the opportunity to protect the workers who make this university run, but they are not doing so,” Galang said.
UAW Region 6 Director Mike Miller commented on the accomplishment of the ratification in the UAW press release.
“Today’s result shows what is possible when workers stand up, organize, and focus relentlessly on securing a fair agreement,” Miller wrote. “Congratulations to everyone who stayed up late, signed petitions, demonstrated, voted to authorize a strike, and stood ready to withhold labor until the administration came to the table to bargain in good faith. Today, we celebrate the power of your collective action.”
