Last week, administration and our bargaining teams reached a verbal agreement on the Grievance and Arbitration article, which became a Tentative Agreement on 5/31 following confirmation from Caltech administration. This article is crucial to our ability to enforce the provisions of our contract, and enshrines firm, fast timelines for resolution and third-party neutral arbitration.
Throughout the bargaining process, our bargaining teams will reach Tentative Agreements one by one for each article of the contract. Once an article becomes a Tentative Agreement, it is then set aside until the entire contract is tentatively agreed to by our bargaining teams and administration’s bargaining team.
This week, administration has backed out of the agreement, making changes because they claimed they hadn’t read the article carefully enough. Their new proposal reverts a key position regarding the number of peer representatives a worker can choose to have throughout their grievance process. It is this substantial change that violates bargaining standards set by the National Labor Relations Board; such “regressive bargaining” could be considered unlawful. We came to the table in good faith, as they claimed to do, and we hope this behavior does not set a precedent for what we can expect from the administration’s bargaining team.
What happens next:
To give the administration’s bargaining team more time to work on and read over their proposals carefully, the June 10th bargaining session has been postponed to all-day sessions on June 17th and 18th. While we continue to push for on-campus bargaining sessions, it’s unfortunately likely that these sessions will also be off campus. We will organize carpools for those who RSVP.
RSVP to join us in person for the June 17th bargaining session and show the administration that GSWs and PDs are united in achieving a strong first contract.
Questions and feedback can always be sent to organize@cgpu.org.
In solidarity,
CGPU-UAW GSW and PD Bargaining Teams
Nadia Suryawinata, GSW, BBE
David Abramovitch, GSW, EAS
Emma Lenz, GSW, EAS
Sam Ponnada, GSW, PMA
James Williams, GSW, EAS
Michael Greklek-McKeon, GSW, GPS
Ruolin Deng, GSW, GPS
Matthew Langley, GSW, BBE
Simona Miller, GSW, PMA
Quinn Morgan, GSW, EAS
Korbi Thalhammer, GSW, GPS
Varun Wadia, PD, HSS
Jessica Griffiths, PD, BBE
Patrick Meyers, PD, PMA
Jessica Spake, PD, GPS
Tessa Rusch, PD, HSS