ASE CONTRACT EXTENSION

RATIFICATION VOTE

DECEMBER 3RD-6TH

The UAW 4811 ASE Bargaining Committee recently reached a Tentative Agreement with UC to extend our current contract from May 31st, 2025 until December 31st, 2025, along with a raise this October and a transitional funding pilot program on every campus. Members will vote whether to ratify this Tentative Agreement between December 3rd-6th. 

The Bargaining Committee has voted 19-5 to recommend that members vote YES to ratify. The majority of the Bargaining Committee explain their position here. Five members of the committee had a different view, which can be found here. It’s important that members make an informed and collective decision about our bargaining timeline, and campuses and departments will be holding meetings prior to the ratification vote to discuss the tentative agreement. You can read the complete Tentative Agreement here.

Only UAW 4811 members in good standing may vote on the tentative agreement.

If the extension is ratified, then:

  • In October 2025, ASEs will receive a 4% wage increase (greater than the current rate of inflation)

  • All campuses will begin a transitional funding pilot program that ASEs can fight to expand through bargaining 

  • Our contract will expire during the academic year, instead of over the summer when many ASEs are not working

  • There will be additional time to resolve major outstanding contract violations and legal disputes prior to bargaining

  • Bargaining will begin no later than July 2025, giving ASEs at least six months to negotiate before the December 31, 2025 expiration

  • ASEs can spend Spring and Fall 2025 building power to win the strongest possible contract

You can read the complete Tentative Agreement here.

Only UAW 4811 members may vote on the tentative agreement. This is a critical time to build power for the contract campaign, and it will take every worker’s participation to win a strong contract. Join the supermajority of your coworkers and sign up as a union member here.

GENERAL FAQs

  • Many GSRs work in abusive environments, or have deep reservations about their labs’ funding sources or research goals, but are unable to leave because they depend on their PIs for funding. A transitional funding program provides funding for these GSRs to support themselves while they look for another lab. UCLA announced a transitional funding pilot program over the summer, and our Union issued a demand to bargain with UC over that program, since ASEs have previously made proposals to establish such programs in the past. As a result of this agreement, every campus will have a transitional funding pilot program (not just UCLA), and it will be in the contract and therefore subject to future negotiation

  • We go “out of contract”, which means that many provisions of our contract are no longer in effect. While out of contract, we lose the ability to enforce our rights through the grievance and arbitration process.. It also means our no-strikes clause is no longer in effect, although other legal restrictions on strikes still apply.

  • In previous ASE contract campaigns, we’ve presented our initial “sunshine” demands in January and have gone to the bargaining table in February or March.

  • In 2022 and 2018, our contract expired in June; in 2022 our union and UC agreed to extend month by month through October. These extensions did not include salary increases.

  • A general salary increases, or GSI, is an increase to the entire pay scale. Under this tentative agreement, all GSR and ASE salary scales, including for hourly workers, would increase by 4%. Workers paid above the scale would receive a 2% salary increase or be placed on the appropriate salary point, whichever is higher.

  • Since the end of our Spring 2024 strike, UC and our union have been participating in a confidential mediation process mandated by California’s Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) to resolve outstanding Unfair Labor Practices charges. This fall, as part of that process, UC approached our union with a proposal to extend our current union contract. Members of the Bargaining Committee negotiated more favorable language from UC in several areas and voted 19-5 to put the resulting agreement to a membership vote and recommend that members vote Yes.

  • PERB is the body tasked with regulating public sector labor unions in California. It has the power to mandate that unions and employers participate in confidential mediation processes to settle disputes.

  • UC may be interested in this deal due to the high number of outstanding disputes over the interpretation of our current contracts. UC and UAW have major arbitrations pending that will determine the composition of the bargaining unit (UC is currently attempting to exclude many fellows from the SR bargaining unit) and other important contract interpretation questions, such as whether UC has the right to reduce the steps of incoming GSRs in a department in response to negotiated raise increases. Decisions or settlements on these issues will give both parties greater clarity on what to prioritize at the bargaining table.

  • Yes, per the contract above-scale ASEs will receive a 2% raise or will be placed on the appropriate salary point, whichever increase is greater.

VOTING FAQs

  • On December 15, your Bargaining Committee reached a Tentative Agreement with UC to extend our current contract from May 31st, 2025 until December 31st, 2025, along with a raise this October and a transitional funding pilot program on every campus. Members will vote whether to ratify this Tentative Agreement between December 3rd-6th

  • The election will be held entirely online via a secure voting platform. You will receive a personalized link to your email on file. 

  • Voting will open on Tuesday, December 3 at 12:01am PT.

  • Voting will close on Friday, December 6 at 5pm PT. 

  • You will receive an email from vote@simplyvoting.com under the name UAW 4811. The email will contain a link to the voting website and a log-in specific to your email. Do not forward or show this email to anyone else.

  • The results will be made ready instantly to our Elections Committee, which will write up the results to be distributed to membership as soon as possible. When the Elections Committee publishes the results of the election on Simply Voting, the vote totals will be made available to all voters.

  • Per the Local bylaws, any UAW 4811 ASE member in good standing is eligible to vote. To be a member in good standing, one must have signed a membership card, and must be an undergraduate student who is currently working as an ASE, a graduate student, or a dues-paying member. Adding an elector to the database requires a name and an email address. 

    However, if you have unsubscribed or someone has unsubscribed you when you forwarded an email, you need to opt back in to Local’s communications to receive a ballot. You cannot be automatically resubscribed due to service agreements and federal and state anti-spam laws.

  • A member in good standing is a member who is up-to-date on their dues. Because our dues are automatically deducted by UC, this should include you if you have signed a membership card and have not revoked your membership.

    For graduate students, you can be a member in good standing even if you are not currently working in-unit. 

  • Fill out this form to resubscribe to union emails. If you are subscribed to union emails but did not receive a ballot, fill out this (https://go.uaw4811.org/vote) to request a ballot. The Elections Committee and Data Team will verify your membership and ensure that you are added to the list of ballot recipients. You may fill this form out before or during the election (if during the election, do so before 12pm PT on December 6th).

  • There are three bargaining units in UAW 4811:

    • Academic Student Employee (ASE) : This includes all graduate and undergraduate student-workers, such as TAs, GSIs, Readers, Tutors, GSRs, Fellows, and Trainees. You may also vote in ASE elections if you are a member but are not currently working in-unit.

    • Postdoctoral Scholars (PD): This includes all postdoctoral researchers and fellows, including paid-direct fellows.

    • Academic Researchers (AR): This includes Specialists and Junior Specialists, Project Scientists, Professional Researchers, and Coordinators of Public Programs.

  • The deadline to request a ballot is Friday, December 6th at 12:00pm PT.

  • You must be a member of UAW 4811 (either a UC graduate student; a current undergrad who is working as a GSI/TA, reader, or tutor; or working in one of the represented titles) to vote. Sign up to become a member here!

  • Every member of the Elections Committee is to be given access to a member list, similar to the one they would have available during a physical vote. This allows them to double-check voter eligibility.

  • You can view Simply Voting’s security and reliability measures here.

  • After voting, Simply Voting will give you a voting receipt that contains the time of your vote, your IP address, and your voting choices. This receipt is only accessible by you. In addition, your vote comes with a code that can be matched to a ledger that shows you your voting choices. Your code is only made available to you. No one can match your identity to your voting choices with the ledger alone.

    This is an example voting receipt (created using a test election).

    This is an example voting ledger (created using a test election).

  • Yes. The administrative side of the election interface shows who is voting but does not reveal the vote count as the election is happening. After the election closes, the administrative side has access to the ledger of the votes but not the identity of individual votes.

  • Email the Elections Committee at elections@uaw4811.org.

    The Elections Committee is not permitted to provide any advice on who to vote for and will only assist in the logistics of ensuring members’ access to vote.