Last Friday, 300 GSWs and Postdocs rallied to signal to the Caltech administration that existing protections like Title IX and current international scholar policies do not meet the needs of our academic community. We appreciate that the administration listened: Caltech admin has proposed two-year minimum initial appointments for all postdocs! This industry-leading proposal would ensure that international Postdocs receive two-year initial visas, addressing some of the stories Caltech Postdocs recently shared here.
We still await their responses on H1-B visa application support for postdocs, visa renewal assistance for all international scholars, a parallel process to Title IX, and protections against bullying.
Major progress!
GSWs and Postdocs also reached a tentative agreement on strong protections concerning Job Expectations and Scheduling of Work, including:
- Hours, schedules, and expectations commensurate with our appointment
- Provisions securing the work flexibility necessary in academia
- For GSWs, protections against being required to do excessive work unrelated to thesis research and degree requirements.
In addition to the wins above, we also reached three new tentative agreements with the Caltech administration that enshrine enforceable rights on: Retirement, Parking and Transit, and Holidays.
But there’s still work to be done
While we have not yet reached an agreement with Caltech administration on Non-Discrimination, the strong turnout and the difficult experiences that were shared at our rally last week are already encouraging Caltech admin to respond favorably. This week, their bargaining team has indicated positive movement for their next proposal after hearing the grievances GSWs and Postdocs shared.
A point of clarification
On our website, we discussed the importance of fighting for an agency shop, in which nobody is required to become a member of the union, but everyone is required to pay agency fees to ensure that we have the resources to enforce our contract. Our language was ambiguous and implied that the Caltech administration was insisting on an open shop in which nobody needs to contribute (which would render contract enforcement impossible). We would like to clarify that the Caltech administration has NOT yet responded to the bargaining team’s proposal on Union Security, and thus has not taken a position on this issue publicly. We’ll let you know once they respond.
What comes next?
Bargaining continues next week on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Want to be in the room where it all happens? RSVP to attend a session! But the most important thing any GSW or Postdoc can do right now is join an info session on collective bargaining—we need to strategize and decide the best way to collectively use our power so that we continue to make progress on our top issues.
In solidarity,
Patrick Meyers, Postdoc, PMA
Any questions, comments, and concerns can be sent to organize@cgpu.org. You can track bargaining progress and read copies of all tentative agreements on our bargaining portal.