Notice of Violation of UC-UAW CBA

From: Sheila Kulkarni, Recording Secretary of the UAW 2865 Bargaining Unit at UCSB
To: Napolitano, Regents, Larive, Kletzer, Williams
CC: COLA UCSC and COLA UCSB lists
Date: Feb 18, 2020, 4:50 PM
Subject: Notice of Violation of UC-UAW CBA

Dear UC President Napolitano, and all others it may concern,

I hope this email finds you well. My name is Sheila Kulkarni, and I am the Recording Secretary of the UAW 2865 Bargaining Unit at UC Santa Barbara.

First, I would like to thank you for your unwavering dedication to upholding our hard-won union contract. In your own words, “the obligations between the University and its unions are negotiated and memorialized systemwide in collective bargaining agreements.”

As such, I am obligated to inform you that your notice dated Friday, February 14th, 2020, indicating that strike participation “will have consequences, up to and including termination of existing employment at the University” is in violation of the UC-UAW Collectively Bargained Agreement (CBA), Article 3 (Appointment Security), Section D.

Article 3 Section D of the UC-UAW CBA states that an Academic Student Employee (ASE) appointment cannot be revoked when promised unless a student has become “academically ineligible.” Per a previous email from Veronica Hamilton, UAW 2865 Bargaining Unit Chair at UC Santa Cruz, the University is in receipt of at least 80 union grievances regarding fraudulent student conduct charges brought against striking TAs. As the University has already violated Article 8 (Discipline & Dismissal) subsections A and B by issuing these student conduct summons, the University has no standing to terminate ASEs who have been promised employment in spring quarter.

To be clear, if you are a TA who has been promised an appointment for spring quarter in any way, formally or informally, verbally or in writing, this statement from President Napolitano is in clear violation of your union rights. To remedy this, please get in contact with me or anyone on our contract enforcement team at santabarbara@uaw2865.org to file a union grievance. We are more than happy to help file grievances on behalf of our colleagues at UC Santa Cruz.

It is shameful to see the UC administration so plainly transgressing the UC-UAW CBA that they have cited multiple times (falsely) as a way to avoid negotiating with UCSC graduate students. As such, I hope this issue can come to a speedy resolution in which the University revokes these baseless threats. I look forward to working with all parties involved.

All the best,

Sheila Kulkarni
they/them/theirs
Rent Burden: 37% (what’s this?)
Ph.D Student, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry
Unit Recording Secretary, UAW 2865
University of California, Santa Barbara

Mission

We are TAs, GSIs, Tutors, Readers, Student Researchers, Fellows, Postdocs, and Academic Researchers at UCSC. We are represented by our union, UAW 4811 (Formerly UAW 2865 and UAW 5810). In 2019/2020, workers at UCSC withheld labor for a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA), and in 2022, our statewide union struck for 6 weeks over a COLA, arguing for a 54k base wage for all academic workers with the goal of raising the living conditions of academic workers across the state. Now, we are on strike for Divestment, Disclosure, Transitional funding for researchers, & Amnesty for all protestors.