Take Political Action

From our classrooms and labs to the halls of power, UAW 4811 members are organizing to ensure we elect pro-worker candidates and pass ballot measures that support working people this election season.

OUR PRIORITIES THIS NOVEMBER

Winning Workers’ Rights across the Western States

  • Reproductive Rights: The right to an abortion is on the ballot in Arizona and Nevada, and workers are organizing alongside fellow Region 6 UAW members to make sure it passes in both states.

  • Collective Bargaining Rights: Tens of thousands of public sector workers in Arizona and Nevada—including higher ed workers—lack secure collective bargaining rights. Region 6 UAW members are organizing to win those rights this fall, and UAW 4811 members are answering the call.

Securing Affordable Housing and Protecting Tenants

  • Berkeley Tenant Protections: workers fought to get measure BB in the city of Berkeley on the ballot—if passed, it would allow tenants to form unions to collectively bargain with their landlords. Now, workers are canvassing to make sure that it, and not its corporate counterpart, receives majority support in November.

  • Santa Barbara Renters’ Rights: workers are fighting to flip control of city council in one of California’s most expensive cities and establish a rent board and rent caps.

  • Legalizing Rent Control: workers are fighting to repeal Costa Hawkins, which prohibits municipalities from passing rent control laws.

Taking Action on Climate Change

  • Funding for Public Transit in the Bay Area: workers are organizing behind Prop L, which would allocate funds to Muni services in San Francisco

  • Access to Clipper BayPass: through our union contracts, workers won access to the Clipper BayPass program in 2023. Thousands of UAW members have access to all Bay Area transit systems as a result. Now, that program is up for renewal, and workers are organizing to make sure it stays accessible and expands to more campuses.

Building Worker Power

  • Passing the PRO Act: A record number of Americans support unions—and passing the PRO Act, which would unlock political power for millions of union members, is possible if we win majorities in the Senate and House of Representatives.

  • Banning Captive Audience Meetings: Employers often require employees to attend mandatory meetings where religious, political, or anti-union views are forced upon them. SB 399 simply would give workers the right to choose not to listen and bars employers from mandating attendance to meetings with religious or political content, and workers are organizing to ensure Governor Newsom signs it.

  • Defeating Trump: If elected, Donald Trump promises to gut collective bargaining rights for workers across the country. UC academic workers, alongside hundreds of thousands of other UAW members, are fighting to stop this right-wing attack on workers and protect the achievements of the labor movement from the Project 2025 agenda.

OUR PLAN TO WIN

  • Working with pro-worker, pro-higher education campaigns to get out the vote

  • Helping to register thousands of new voters across the state

  • Working alongside fellow Region 6 members in AZ and NV to win reproductive rights and collective bargaining rights, and to defeat the right-wing assault on workers around the country

V-CAP: UAW VOLUNTEER COMMUNITY ACTION PROGRAM

The UAW Volunteer Community Action Program (VCAP) is our union’s member-supported political fund. Thousands of UAW members make monthly VCAP contributions to support pro-worker political initiatives and candidates who earn the endorsement of the UAW Western States CAP/PAC Council. 

UC management spends millions on their lobbyists. A strong VCAP program means Academic Workers can advance our own vision for the university: an inclusive research culture, fair compensation for our labor, and accessible education for all.

Why is VCAP Important? 

Academic workers have used legislative power to win our demands at key inflection points in our fight for a better UC. Union power elected Nancy Skinner to California Senate in 2016; in 2017, Skinner introduced SB 201, which ultimately gave 14,000 UC GSRs the right to form a union. During GSRs’ fight for union recognition, and our bigger fight for transformative union contracts, over 50 California state legislators sent letters of support to UC on anti-bullying, transit, and ending UC’s bad faith bargaining that helped propel us to victory.

VCAP contributions have also helped academic workers fight for the rights of workers in the whole of the higher ed labor movement, including those outside California. Under the Trump Administration, VCAP contributions helped Postdocs and Academic Researchers stop right-wing attempts to cut federal science funding, guaranteeing higher salaries for Postdoc and Academic Researchers both at UC and across the country. 

Nationally, UAW VCAP supported the first repeal of Right-to-Work laws in 58 years in Michigan, as well as successful progressive policies like Illinois’s landmark Climate & Equitable Jobs Act and New York State’s Build Public Renewables campaign.

Through VCAP, academic workers have been able to elect pro-worker candidates, including seasoned labor organizers and members of our own union. Some recent labor champions who won their elections with UAW support include:

  • HUGO SOTO-MARTINEZ Labor organizer, Los Angeles City Council 

  • JANANI RAMACHANDRAN Former UAW member, Oakland City Council 

  • LIZ ORTEGA Labor organizer, California State Assembly 

  • LOLA SMALLWOOD CUEVAS Labor organizer and UAW member, California State Senate 

 FAQs

  • We make endorsements as part of UAW Western States, which includes California, Oregon, Washington and other states. Members from these states can get involved to decide what candidates and legislation they want to see our union support. Those priorities are ultimately voted on by the UAW Western States CAP/PAC Council, which our Local presidents sit on.

  • No. Our union supports candidates with pro-labor, progressive, and left values, not just a party platform. We have supported challengers to incumbent Democrats many times, including LA City Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez.

  • Green card holders can contribute to VCAP. Even if you can’t contribute monetarily, international workers are still active in UAW’s political program. International workers can organize our coworkers around political issues, make lobby visits, and encourage their coworkers to contribute to VCAP.

  • VCAP contributions are voluntarily-given PAC funds that are contributed towards external candidates. CAP funds are part of your dues and are used to support other political activities, but cannot be used for candidate elections.

  • VCAP is paid the same way that dues are deducted. If a workers has dues deducted, they can contribute to VCAP.