TL;DR: On the 18th of July, at 2:30PM, UAW Local 2478 will be hosting Congressional Representative Judy Chu (CA-28)! RSVP here and fill out this form if you have any stories to share. Tentative location: Beckman Mall!
We hope this summer has been treating you well. Your union, UAW Local 2478, has been working hard to advocate for the needs and priorities of grads and postdocs at Caltech. We have had intense conversations with the Caltech administration since our contract was ratified, and have been working with elected officials in California to ensure our working conditions are maintained.
One of the biggest challenges we have been facing is the federal government’s indicated plans to gut funding to science, including devastating cuts to grants across the University of California and California State University campuses. As we speak our union siblings across California are facing dismissal letters. Postdoctoral scholars will be facing the brunt of these funding cuts, and many international postdocs are having to find alternative sources of employment to stay in this country.
As such, U.S. Congresswoman Judy Chu will be meeting with us, Caltech grad student workers and postdocs, on July 18th at 2:30 pm, giving us the chance to share stories of how cuts to funding have and will continue to affect our work and the future of the American academy. Rep. Judy Chu is the congressional representative for the district that houses Caltech and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and co-chair of the Congressional Planetary Science Caucus. She is one of the strongest advocates for science in Washington, DC.
For decades, America has set the standard for scientific research by investing in national laboratories, the Department of Energy, and the National Science Foundation. The Mars Sample Return program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, for example, is a global leader in Mars Exploration, demonstrating America’s strong commitment to space exploration. It employs a significant portion of the workforce at JPL, and is the product of decades of taxpayer investment into America’s Mars Program. It is currently set to be completely defunded, meaning all of those jobs would be lost and these decades of investment wasted. Rep. Chu has already been speaking out against this, and has committed to continue advocating for science.
Legislation being discussed in Congress right now directly affects our working conditions, and threatens to permanently change how research is conducted at Caltech. When hundreds of us show up as workers and scientists, we can show Judy Chu how important this issue is to us at Caltech. If you have a short story you would like to share with Rep Chu, fill out this form, or else RSVP here!
In solidarity,
UAW Local 2478