Negotiations begin for new contract for Academic Student Employees

UC begins negotiations this week with the United Auto Workers (UAW) for a new contract for you and your ASE colleagues, and we want you to know what UC’s priorities and goals are for these negotiations.

Our overarching goal is a multi-year agreement that reflects the significant contributions ASEs make to undergraduate education at UC. Specific priorities include:

• Fair pay: We are committed to ensuring that you are compensated fairly for your work. We routinely review compensation data at comparable universities to inform what we pay ASEs. 

• Quality benefits and family support:We offer ASEs a comprehensive array of health and family-friendly benefits, including financial subsidies for childcare, childcare centers at every campus, pregnancy leave and other support for eligible student employees. 

• Supportive, respectful working conditions: Ensuring a safe, respectful, and supportive workplace environment for all employees, including ASEs, is a top UC priority.
• Good-faith, efficient negotiations: Negotiations are most successful when both sides come to the table with an open mind, a genuine willingness to listen and be flexible, and a good-faith commitment to productive, respectful negotiations and reaching an agreement before the current contract expires.
• Regular updates: We believe it is important that you are kept informed about negotiations throughout the process. We will keep you updated with regular bargaining updates and other communications as circumstances warrant. 

Thank you for all you do to support our students and our faculty, and your many contributions to our instructional mission and the UC community.