UCLA members of the UC’s largest employee union said their working hours have been cut amid budget uncertainty.

United Auto Workers Local 4811, which represents over 48,000 academic and postdoctoral researchers, academic student employees and graduate student researchers across the UC began contract negotiations with the University in July that are expected to run through the end of the year. The union is also representing about 5,000 student services and advising professionals – who the UC recognized in April – in the ongoing negotiations.

The union, according to its website, is demanding fair pay and job security, protections for free speech and legal and financial support for international workers in its new contract.

The federal government suspended $584 million of UCLA’s funding from the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation and U.S. Department of Energy in late July due to UCLA allegedly allowing antisemitism, illegal affirmative action practices and “men to participate in women’s sports,” according to letters from the federal government. A California federal district court judge temporarily reinstated the NSF and NIH grants Aug. 12 and Sept. 22, respectively, which constituted the vast majority of UCLA’s frozen funds.

[Related: FEDERAL FUNDING CUTS TO UCLA]

Garret May, a doctoral student in materials science and engineering and a member of UAW Local 4811, said his teaching assistant hours were cut in half this year due to funding cuts to UCLA. To make up for lost income, he will be taking on two 10-hour-a-week TA positions instead of one 20-hour-a-week position, he said.

“Because of general funding cuts to UCLA and, in addition, to the federal funding … multiple departments have cut off the percentage of the TA appointments,” May said. “It was previously a 50% appointment, which is only full time. And then for this, you’ll get like, ‘JK (just kidding) – it’s only going to be 25%, try to find the other half somewhere else.’”

In an attempt to reinstate the cut hours, May said he was told grievances have been filed because of the reduction. Despite this, May added that the switch has left him uncertain of if he will have enough time to put in an adequate amount of work for each position.

“Technically, because my original TA appointment has been reduced from 50 to 25%, technically, I will only be doing 10 hours worth of work,” May said. “So my department has put me in an interesting position, where I either I have to choose: either I work more than I’m paid, or I give less than mixed stellar TA performance, and I have to drop some of my responsibilities or reduce the quality of my grading, because I also will now have 10 hours a week with a separate TA-ship.”

A UC Office of the President spokesperson said in an emailed statement that individual departments at UCLA – and all UC campuses – make decisions regarding instruction and that appointment levels for graduate students vary by term.

They added in the statement that federal funding cuts did not directly impact the TA appointments.

“TA appointments are generally funded by limited state and tuition funds, which, while stagnate in the current local fiscal environment, are not directly impacted by federal funding actions,” the spokesperson said in the statement.

The state is currently facing a $15 billion budget deficit, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office. The state’s 2025-26 budget also deferred a $130 million payment to the UC until the 2026-27 fiscal year.

Jon Hillery, a doctoral student in mathematics, said the reduction in working hours have made once-common 20 hour work weeks rare among his colleagues. He added that many of his colleagues are currently unsure of what research positions are available because of budget uncertainty.

“I’m one of the few people in the department who has a 50% appointment, which is full time for grad students,” Hillery said. “It used to be that the common practice was that was what everyone got by default, and most of the department isn’t getting that.”

Aya Konishi, a sociology doctoral student and the bargaining unit for UAW Local 4811, said the negotiations are the UC’s chance to align itself with the needs of workers.

The union’s demands still include protecting international students and union members, Konishi said. However, she added that the union is also now attempting to strengthen support from the state and federal government against the Trump administration’s “threats to funding for higher ed (education) and funding for research.”

UAW Local 4811 members rallied outside of Royce Hall on Wednesday in support of a petition demanding that the UC protect international workers, which they delivered to University administrators and campus leaders earlier that day. The petition, which has over 10,000 signatories, calls on the UC to create a legal defense fund for those facing changes to their immigration status, “take all available measures” to restore the immigration status of those who are impacted by status changes and to prevent federal immigration agents from accessing campus without warrants.

[Related: UAW Local 4811 rallies to demand UC protect international workers]

The Trump administration revoked the visas of at least 19 UCLA students and alumni in April, as well as the visas of students at other UC campuses. However, the Trump administration announced later that month that it would temporarily reinstate the student visas it revoked while it developed a consistent framework for status termination.

[Related: Trump administration announces restoration of international students’ visas]

The Trump administration’s federal funding freeze at UCLA has also raised concerns about job insecurity among union members, Konishi said. The order restoring the grants will only hold as the case moves through the courts.

“It’s created this huge fear of job insecurity because if you know the federal funding isn’t being given to UC, then there’s less money to pay people to do this work,” Konishi said. “That’s extremely concerning.”

[Related: Graduate, postdoctoral scholars grapple with labor strain amid funding cuts]

May said he believes that graduate students are seen as easy to “push around,” but that UAW Local 4811 gives them a source of leverage against the University.

Kira Fish, a doctoral student in atmospheric and oceanic sciences, said, as the union representative for her department, she answers questions from her colleagues about current union issues. Fish added that they have struggled to help their department members because not even the department or principal investigators know what will happen next.

“In my department, there’s just been a general sense of stress, but also nobody’s asking to me a lot of questions because they know that nobody really has an answer right now,” Fish said.

Throughout this uncertainty, union protections are needed for both the workers and society, May added.

“We may not be able to change how much money we’re bleeding because of this state of politics, but we can change how that burden gets distributed amongst people at UCLA to make sure that it’s not just graduate students bearing that load,” May said.