Thank you to everyone who made it to the New Year, New Union majority rally on Wednesday! In case you missed it, a majority of graduate students and postdocs at Caltech support forming a union! This is a huge milestone (more later about what this means), but the message is clear: we want a union, and together we have the power to make that happen.
The event was a smashing success—over 400 people across all divisions came to show their support for unionization at Caltech.
Besides a visible show of support, the event highlighted the varied and powerful reasons driving us to form a union. Speakers talked about issues they and their friends faced with the current system, including medical care, abusive conduct in the workplace, visa/immigration fees, and family/dependent support. A union is the only legally recognized entity that would enable grads and postdocs to bargain directly with Caltech to improve these aspects of our working conditions.
So what next? Moving forward, we’ll continue to build even greater support and participation. In the coming weeks, we expect to be ready to file our union authorization cards with the National Labor Relations Board and request that Caltech agree to a fair process to verify majority support for CGPU. If you haven’t signed a card yet, you can do so here. Caltech can choose to voluntarily recognize our union; since this is unlikely, an election will be held after filing with the NLRB. If a majority of voters favor forming a union, grads and postdocs will elect bargaining teams and begin negotiations with Caltech!
C/GPU is entirely composed of Caltech graduate students and postdocs. Our path to unionization relies on YOU. If you would like to help make our union a reality, please contact us!
Here are ways you might get involved:
-
Sign a card if you haven’t already.
-
Become a point of contact in your lab or cohort.
-
Come to your divisional organizing meetings to stay on top of C/GPU news.
-
Help organize more events like the New Year, New Union rally.
-
Join the communications team.
If you have questions or would like more information on unionization, please join us on Wednesday, October 11th at 5pm for a town hall! This will be a great opportunity to learn more about next steps, discuss what we could improve about working at Caltech, and ask questions about the process of forming a union and collective bargaining. We look forward to seeing you there!
In solidarity,
Abdullah Farooq, Biology