Frequently asked questions about bargaining units

A bargaining unit is a group of employees with titles and job duties that are sufficiently aligned to make it an appropriate grouping for purposes of collective representation by a union. Except for the skilled crafts titles and a few others, the Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations Act (HEERA) presumes that an appropriate unit is one that is “systemwide.” It includes all employees within an occupational group at all UC locations in California.

There are 15 systemwide bargaining units currently at UC:

• Academic Researchers (UAW)
• Academic Student Employees (UAW)
• Clerical & Allied Services (IBT 2010)
• Graduate Student Researchers (UAW)
• Health Care Professionals (UPTE)
• Professional Librarians (AFT)
• Non-Senate Instructional (Lecturers) (AFT)
• Registered Nurses (CNA)
• Police Officers (FUPOA)
• Postdoctoral Scholars (UAW)
• Patient Care Technical (AFSCME)
• Physicians, Dentists and Podiatrists (UAPD)
• Research Support Professionals (UPTE)
• Service (AFSCME)
• Technical (UPTE)

In addition, there are 22 campus-specific bargaining units, primarily for skilled craft titles, safety employees, and house staff.

As of Fall 2022, there were over 134,000 represented employees across all UC locations.

California’s Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) administers the statutes governing public sector collective bargaining. PERB conducts elections, handles representation and unit modification cases, and investigates and makes decisions regarding Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charges filed by employees, labor organizations, and public entities.

PERB administers the Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations Act (HEERA), the state law that regulates labor relations among UC, the California State University systems, UC College of the Law, San Francisco (formerly known as Hastings College of the Law), their employees, and the unions that represent their employees.

HEERA gives employees the right to form, join and participate in the activities of employee organizations for the purpose of union representation on matters governing wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment.

Employees are protected from reprisals, discrimination, coercion or interference when exercising the rights guaranteed by HEERA, including the right to form, join and participate in union activities.

Employees defined as “managerial” or “confidential” under HEERA are excluded from the law’s coverage. Supervisors, who are defined differently than “managerial employees,” have some rights to union representation under HEERA; however, the law prevents collective bargaining of supervisors’ terms and conditions of employment.

Additional information about PERB and how it administers HEERA and other public sector labor laws can be found here.

The university and the union are required to meet at reasonable times to negotiate in good faith over wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment. Neither the university nor the union has to agree to any specific proposal or make any specific concession, but both parties must engage in genuine efforts to reach an agreement. If an agreement cannot be reached, statutory impasse procedures, including mediation and fact-finding, may be required.

Representatives from the university and the union (“bargaining teams”) meet to negotiate the terms of an agreement. Both sides discuss contract-related issues during these negotiations and present proposals and counterproposals. State law requires that both sides engage in good-faith negotiations to try to resolve any differences and work to reach an agreement in a timely manner.

An RFI is a Request for Information. Two California laws operate to require the University to provide information in response to a request by a union. Some UC union contracts also contain provisions that require the university to provide certain information. The Office of the President, Labor Relations (OPLR) handles only those requests that come from unions. For assistance with requests that come from individuals or other organizations, please contact UC Legal – Office of General Counsel.

Generally, unions send their requests for systemwide information directly to OPLR in writing. However, if anyone outside of OPLR receives a request directly from a union, that person should contact OPLR immediately. OPLR will review the request, determine what parts of it must be provided under the law, and respond to the union’s request.

Representatives from the university and the union (“bargaining teams”) meet to negotiate the terms of an agreement. Both sides discuss contract-related issues during these negotiations and present proposals and counterproposals. State law requires that both sides engage in good-faith negotiations to try to resolve any differences and work to reach an agreement in a timely manner.

A grievance is a dispute over the interpretation, application, or enforcement of the terms of the collective bargaining agreement (CBA). The CBA typically defines what qualifies as a grievance. For example, some of the University’s contracts define a grievance as a formal allegation that the University has violated a specific provision of the CBA. The CBA also defines what elements should be contained in a formal grievance, including:

• Statement of the facts/actions/inactions giving rise to, or relevant to, the grievance;
• Allegation of how such facts/actions/inactions resulted in a violation of the CBA, including citation of the specific articles or provisions which are alleged to have been violated;
• Request for one or more remedies.

The grievance process and mandated timelines are outlined in the grievance article of the applicable collective bargaining agreement, which can be located on UCNet. The grievance process generally consists of three steps. After those steps are exhausted, the union may file an appeal to arbitration.

Arbitration is the dispute resolution process used to decide grievances brought under the collective bargaining agreement. The arbitrator is a neutral third party who hears the grievance case and renders a final and binding decision. The collective bargaining agreement (CBA) defines the scope of the arbitrator’s authority and the procedural steps required to bring a grievance to arbitration. Under the University’s collective bargaining agreements, an appeal to arbitration generally must be filed within 20-45 calendar days of the issuance of the University’s Step 3 grievance decision. It must follow any requirements outlined in the arbitration article of the applicable CBA.

An unfair labor practice is an action by an employer or a union that violates the Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations Act (HEERA). There are six categories of unfair labor practices for employers that are prohibited under HEERA:

• Discriminate, retaliate, interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees because of the exercise of their HEERA rights;
• Deny employee organizations their rights under HEERA, such as rights to information, to access facilities, and to represent employees;
• Refuse or fail to meet and confer with the union;
• Dominate or support an employee organization, or show a preference for one employee organization over another;
• Refuse to participate in good faith in statutory impasse procedures;
• Consult with advisory groups on matters within the scope of representation for exclusively represented employees.

There are seven categories of unfair labor practices for unions that are prohibited under HEERA:

• Discriminate, retaliate, interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees because of the exercise of their HEERA rights;
• Refuse or fail to meet and confer with the employer;
• Refuse to participate in good faith in statutory impasse procedures;
• Fail to fairly and impartially represent all employees in the bargaining unit;
• Require employees to pay excessive or discriminatory fees to become a member;
• Cause the employer to pay for workers the employer does not need or for work that is not or will not be done;
• Cause the employer to commit unfair labor practices.

The Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations Act (HEERA) recognizes the right of employees to have union representation at disciplinary and investigatory interviews. This is commonly referred to as “Weingarten rights” because it is similar to the right recognized in the private sector in a U.S. Supreme Court case (NLRB vs. Weingarten, Inc. (1975) 420 U.S. 251, 88 LRRM 2689).

Employees have Weingarten rights during investigatory interviews or meetings where the employee has a reasonable basis to believe that discipline may result from information obtained in the meeting.

An investigatory interview occurs when a supervisor questions an employee to obtain information that could be incriminating and has the potential to affect the employment relationship. Notably, an investigatory meeting does not occur when an employee has a conversation about career goals, a planned performance meeting, or talking to a professor or mentor about an academic issue or academic progress.

If an employee has a reasonable belief that discipline may result from what they say, the employee has the right to request union representation.

Direct dealing is a type of unfair labor practice where the employer bypasses the union. One type of direct dealing involves a situation where the employer (a supervisor, department head, appointing authority, etc.) deals directly with individual employees to make a change in the terms and conditions of employment instead of dealing with the employee’s collective bargaining representative. An employer may not bypass the union and deal directly with employees on matters that are properly the subject of negotiations with the bargaining unit’s exclusive representative. 

The second type of direct dealing involves an employer communicating directly with employees to undermine the union’s authority to represent the bargaining unit. It is not direct dealing to provide objective and fact-based updates regarding bargaining.

Union representatives have the right to reasonable access to UC employee work areas, to use institutional bulletin boards, employee mailboxes, and other means of communication, and to use facilities for meetings. These rights of access are subject to reasonable regulation where necessary to the employer’s efficient operations or the safety of its employees or others.

However, if there are limitations in place for certain physical spaces, such as patient care areas, for example, then those restrictions apply to union access.

There is no way to predict this. Some labor contracts have been negotiated in a matter of weeks, while others have taken many months to complete. In some cases, negotiations have taken more than a year.

If an employer and union are not able to reach an agreement through negotiations, then the parties may declare an impasse, which means that they cannot resolve their disputes through further bargaining. If the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) certifies the impasse, the parties will be assigned a state mediator. If mediation is unsuccessful, the parties may proceed to a fact-finding hearing. The fact-finding panel will issue a report with recommendations, which the parties must consider in good faith to determine whether it can form the basis for a settlement. If, after fact-finding, an agreement still has not been reached, the parties can exercise their rights under the law. Employers can implement proposals made in bargaining, and the union can go out on strike.

Employees have a protected right to engage in a lawful strike and cannot be subject to discipline or retaliation for lawful, protected activity.

Employees who participate in a strike will not be paid for the time that they are withholding their labor. The University has several legal responsibilities as a public institution and a recipient of grant funds to align compensation with work provided to the institution. These obligations are set forth in Uniform Guidance, 2 Code of Federal Regulations (C.F.R.) Part 200, Art. IX, Sec. 9 of the California Constitution, and Regents Policy 7303: Policy on the Services Obligations and Leaves of Absence.

That means that striking employees’ pay will be aligned with their decision to participate in the strike and withhold their labor, reducing their pay in proportion to work missed.

When a labor agreement between UC and a union expires, most of the rules in the expired contract continue in force, while some others lapse. This period is called “status quo.”

The status quo requires the university to maintain the same wages, hours and terms and conditions of employment for represented bargaining unit employees that existed at the time the contract expired until an agreement with the union is reached to change those terms and conditions.

Many of these “status quo” conditions are reflected in the language of the expired labor agreements, but some status quo conditions are not.

A union seeking to represent a group of employees must petition the state Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) to be certified as the exclusive representative for that specific group of employees. The process can involve either a secret ballot election or the submission of authorization cards from a majority of employees in the proposed bargaining unit.

Under the current “card check” law, a union can collect signatures from 50 percent plus one of the employees in the appropriate unit and become the exclusive representative for all employees in that unit — including those who didn’t sign authorization cards or a petition. No election is held in these cases.

Suppose a union submits signatures from at least 30 percent of the employees in a proposed bargaining unit but less than a simple majority. In that case, PERB will hold a secret ballot election to allow eligible employees to vote on whether they wish to be exclusively represented. The outcome of the election is determined by a majority vote of the employees who vote in the election, regardless of the size of the proposed bargaining unit. As with a national election, low voter turnout can have a significant impact. If less than a majority of eligible voters cast votes, the choice is made by less than a majority of the employees in the unit.

If the petitioning union is selected as the exclusive representative, then the university and union would negotiate wages, hours, and other terms of employment for these employees.