State bill would allow graduate student researchers to join unions if approved
By Jake Greenberg
Feb. 24, 2012 12:25 a.m.
Correction: The original version of this article contained an error. If Senate Bill 259 passes, an additional 14,000 graduate student researchers will be able to join the union and attain collective bargaining rights and other benefits of union membership, such as easier termination procedures and protection of wages and workloads via the contract and grievance process.
For the first time, many UCLA graduate student researchers will be able to join a union previously available to only teaching assistants and readers if a new bill passes the state legislature.
Senate Bill 259, which passed the Senate earlier this February, would expand collective bargaining rights and other benefits to graduate student researchers at the University of California and California State University if it passes through the Assembly and is signed by Gov. Jerry Brown.
Currently, all 12,000 University of California teaching assistants and readers are part of the United Auto Workers union. If the law passes, an additional 14,000 graduate student researchers will be able to join the union and attain collective bargaining rights and other benefits of union membership, such as easier termination procedures and protection of wages and workloads via the contract and grievance process, said Erin Conley, the southern vice president of Academic Workers for a Democratic Union and a UCLA graduate student in the English department.
Graduate students who currently conduct research for the university are paid in a variety of ways, including departmental budgets and grants. There is no consistent means of paying researchers, and it varies by department, Conley said.
In 2000, lawmakers passed an amendment to the previous labor laws that gives graduate student researchers the same healthcare benefits as teaching assistants and readers, according to a fact sheet released by Calif. Sen. Loni Hancock, one of the main proponents of the law.
Under the new law, however, graduate students will be given the ability to negotiate contracts for consistent pay and take advantage of a formal grievance procedure to defend their employment, Conley said.
Hans Hemann, a spokesperson for Sen. Hancock, said the law makes sense because graduate students often switch between research positions and teaching assistant jobs, which means they have switched from being represented to non-represented.
“This law basically allows graduate student researchers the same rights as teaching assistants and readers,” he said. “Since they move back and forth in these positions, it just makes more sense.”
The university is generally opposed to students joining the union because it prefers to negotiate salaries and benefits on an individual basis, said Daniel Mitchell, a professor in the UCLA Anderson School of Management who specializes in unions and labor relations.
Dianne Klein, a spokeswoman for the UC Office of the President, said the law risks the unique relationship between professors and students.
“By allowing (graduate student researchers) to unionize, it fundamentally changes the relationship from mentor and student to employer and employee,” she said.
However, students who conduct research for the university deserve better representation, Conley said.
“Student researchers are essential to a lot of research and innovation,” she said. “Many spend days in the lab putting out work that the professor or university eventually receives credit for.”
The bill will also need to pass in the California Assembly and be signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown. The legislature will need to vote on the bill before October, Conley said.
