The University of California Rank-and-File Strike Committee (UCRFSC) calls on all postdocs and academic researchers to vote NO on the tentative agreements that are being pushed by the UAW Local 5810 bargaining units. These TAs are an attempt by the UAW bureaucracy, in collaboration with the UC administration, to accomplish two interconnected goals to undermine our unity and strength.

First, they aim to divide and demoralize our historic strike of 48,000 academic workers by forcing 11,000 of us back to work, while the rest of us remain on strike. Both TAs explicitly include “no strike” clauses that prohibit work stoppages, including sympathy strikes. If these contracts are ratified, it would immediately result in one-fifth of the strikers crossing the picket line.

Second, it sets a precedent of sellout contracts to be imposed both at the UC and beyond. Tens of thousands of us voted for strike authorization based on the demands for a substantial improvement in base pay, COLA, child care and to address the legal needs of our international coworkers and accessibility needs of our disabled coworkers. The proposed TAs do not adequately address any of the core demands behind the strike and further establish dangerous precedents for living and working standards.

Already the bargaining teams for all the UAW locals involved in the strike have abandoned the demand for COLA and are continuously making further concessions at every bargaining session while suppressing the democratic rights of the membership to know how the BT is voting. The UC system is the third largest employer in California, and we comprise eight percent of the UAW’s total active membership. Our contracts set the standard for millions of workers throughout the United States and internationally.

The decision by the UAW to call a vote on two sellout agreements is a conscious move to draw the strike to a close, especially now because of the possibility of a nationwide strike of more than 100,000 railroad workers. The Biden administration and Congress have voted to ban a rail strike and impose a contract that the workers already rejected.

Read the rest here: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/12/05/odxz-d05.html