Important reminder: the Strike Authorization Vote is TOMORROW!
What: A secure, confidential vote to authorize your bargaining team to call for a strike IF circumstances justify it. This is NOT a vote to go on strike!
When: Wed-Thurs, December 4-5 (polls open at 8am TOMORROW)
How: Online! Check your email carefully tomorrow morning, December 4th!
Why are we holding a Strike Authorization Vote?
Next month the Trump administration will take office, which will likely affect you and increase the outsized burdens many already face on campus. Our key demands around wages, healthcare, and protections for international workers have still not been satisfactorily addressed. On November 19th, at a membership meeting with over 600 in attendance, Postdocs and Graduate Student Workers overwhelmingly agreed to take a Strike Authorization Vote in order to push our economic demands forward.
The fight is far from over. Postdocs and GSWs have still not heard anything from the administration on wage increases, and international scholars still do not have guaranteed leave or fee reimbursement for visa renewal. By voting YES on Wednesday, we will stand together and show the administration that we need to finish negotiations and ratify our industry-leading protections now.
We know collective action works. We have proof here at Caltech and from peer institutions.
How will wage increases affect my advisor’s or P.I.’s budget?
The maximum cost of our proposals for wages, healthcare, childcare, and international scholar visa renewal reimbursements is approximately 18% of Caltech’s endowment’s unrestricted funds (as of fiscal year 2023), and is less than the returns on investment earned each year on these unrestricted funds (using the 10-yr average 8% APY from Caltech’s publicly available 2023 Endowment Report to calculate interest).
In the past, the Caltech administration has also paid for wage increases without additional fundraising or burden to our advisors. For the big 2022 raise, they simply reduced the tuition rate at Caltech for federal funds (which represent the majority of P.I. grant funding).
The bottomline: Caltech administration could finance our contract at zero additional cost to the Institute and our advisors.
What if I have more questions or didn’t receive my ballot?
If you would like to learn more about what a strike authorization vote entails, why we might need to strike, and what a strike might mean for us, please visit the SAV FAQ page. You can also respond directly to this email.
If you didn’t receive your ballot on December 4th and it is not in your spam, reach out to elections@cgpu.org to have your ballot resent to an email of your choosing!
In solidarity,
Na Yeon Kim
International Postdoc in HSS