In this bargaining update:
- ASEs and the university met with Mayor Darrell Steinberg of Sacramento to discuss the possibility of him mediating.
- Bargaining has begun again with a session scheduled for 11:30 a.m. tomorrow.
- Senator Nancy Skinner has written a letter urging UC Berkeley to reach a fair deal and commending ASEs for our commitment to instructional quality
- The university can afford to fund instruction. Here’s why.
We are pleased to share that bargaining has resumed. We have a session scheduled for this Friday (details below). The ASE and university bargaining teams also met with Mayor Darrell Steinberg of Sacramento today to discuss the possibility of mediation. We were impressed by Mayor Steinberg’s knowledge of the issues and are optimistic that he could serve as an effective mediator in this case.
Recently, State Senator Nancy Skinner sent a letter to UC President Michael Drake, Chancellor Carol Christ, and EVCP Ben Hermalin regarding the EECS/DS bargaining process.
“I commend the TA union members for their commitment to their students and the quality of instruction,” Skinner said in the letter. “I urge UC Berkeley to reach a fair agreement with UAW to improve the working conditions of all EECS and Data Science Academic Workers so that ASEs have the resources they need to continue serving their students.”
Our cause is being noticed. We are continuing to meet with legislators and other politicians to raise support for our cause and convince the university to fund instruction in EECS/DS.
The university can fund instruction
Under the union contract, the annual gap between what the university is currently willing to pay ($13.3 million) and what the departments need to provide a high quality education to their students ($21.7 million) is $8.4 million. Because of EECS/DS ASEs’ willingness to take lower wages and remissions than are guaranteed under the contract, that gap has shrunk to just $4.3 million. It is the university’s turn to make up the difference by funding instruction.
For comparison, here are a few other things the university spends money on and how many years of the instructional funding gap they could cover:
| Project | Cost | EECS/DS equivalent |
| Football Coach Justin Wilcox | $4.75 million (per year) | 1 year of funding gap |
| UC President’s official mansion | $6.5 million | 1 year of funding gap |
| Berkeley Chancellors and Vice Chancellors | $58.7 million (per year) | 14 years of funding gap |
| UCPath | $942 million | 219 years of funding gap |
As a reminder, this funding gap is the difference between a world-class education and awful instructional conditions for the 25% of UC Berkeley undergraduates who graduate from EECS/DS every year. Finding the money for this in UC Berkeley’s 3 billion dollar budget should not be difficult—all it takes is 0.1% to literally save EECS/DS.
(Read more online.)
What does the “No Deal” scenario actually mean?
If we do not reach a deal, the statewide union contract will go into effect, which ensures 100% fee remission for all uGSIs, regardless of the number of hours they work, in addition to significant increases in wages for all ASEs. Professor John DeNero says that even with significant increases in the cost of hiring ASEs, we can both maintain roughly the same number of staff hours per student as last semester (which, of course, wouldn’t address any of the understaffing issues) and still reduce the total cost of hiring course staff, with only modest cuts to enrollment. How does the university claim this could be achieved? The short answer: by misclassifying uGSIs as tutors and readers.
The university’s “No Deal” scenario relies on a 23% cut to the number of uGSI hours per student. Because readers and tutors, per the contract, are only allowed to perform a limited number of duties, converting uGSIs to readers and tutors would limit the types of instructional services we are able to offer our students (e.g. cutting the number of discussion and lab sections) and would exacerbate the already widespread misclassification issues in EECS and Data Science, over which ASEs have already filed multiple grievances.
Fundamentally, the funding issues in the department cannot be solved by simply changing how we hire staff. The staffing issues have been going on for years now, so if there was a way to hire more course staff for the same cost, we would have already found it. As we’ve reiterated time and again, the only solution is to increase the amount of funding available for hiring in EECS and Data.
Updated ULP filed
We recently filed an updated unfair labor practice charge with the California Public Employment Relations Board detailing new violations by the university. We’ve also filed a motion for expedited processing of the charge.
Upcoming bargaining session:
- Friday, April 21
- Pre-Caucus: 11–11:40 a.m. in Soda 380
- Bargaining session: 11:40 a.m.–1 p.m. in Soda 380
- Post-caucus: 1–1:30 p.m. in the Wozniak Lounge
You can also join the bargaining sessions via Zoom at https://berkeley.zoom.us/j/95216694463. If you are going to the bargaining session, we highly recommend coming to the pre-caucus beforehand so that we can discuss strategy. Caucuses are not accessible via the Zoom. If you are an ASE who would like to join the caucuses virtually, please let me know and we will send you a special Zoom link.
In solidarity,
Gabe Classon
CS 61A uGSI