ASEs in EECS and Data Science have voted to ratify the tentative agreement reached with the university. While the results are preliminary, 224 voted “yes” to ratify the tentative agreement and 44 voted “no” to not ratify it.
Finalized results will be sent out tomorrow by the elections committee. However, the tentative agreement will certainly be ratified and will therefore be the local agreement for EECS and Data Science undergraduate ASEs at UC Berkeley.
What does ratification of the local agreement mean?
The new local agreement specific to undergraduate ASEs in EECS and Data Science will go into effect for the Fall 2023 semester, and last through the end of the 2024–25 academic year. (The summer 2023 semester will not be affected.)
The bulk of the agreement deals with the creation of new undergraduate staff positions in EECS and Data Science. (Positions for graduate students remain unchanged.) The undergraduate reader would continue to exist, although it would be forbidden from holding instructional office hours. Undergraduate Course Staff 1 (UCS1) would largely supplant the role of group tutors, and would be explicitly permitted to hold instructional office hours. Undergraduate Course Staff 2 (UCS2) would completely supplant the use of uGSIs in the departments, except during summer sessions.
ASEs would also agree to withdraw our unfair labor practice charges against the university and several grievances concerning overwork, misclassification, and wage theft within the departments. The university, in exchange, would guarantee that at least 55% of all ASE hours in EECS and Data Science courses will be worked by UCS2s and GSIs, preventing the widespread adoption of a “tutor army” model.
UCS1s will receive hourly wages equivalent to that of undergraduate group tutors. UCS2s will receive wages that are initially the same as uGSIs, but increase more slowly than uGSIs over the lifetime of the agreement. By October 2024, the UCS2 position will be paid approximately 21% less than other (u)GSIs at UC Berkeley. The UCS2 position will also receive prorated fee remission up to and including 12 hours per week, and 100% fee remission above 12 hours per week.
The university has also agreed to a litany of non-economic provisions including additional overwork protection measures, better ASE orientations, and a guarantee that 375 pedagogy courses are offered (for free) in the summer.
For more detailed information on the local agreement, please see here.
Where do we go from here?
We’ve learned a lot over the last four months of bargaining. We gained a clarified understanding of the priorities of the university. We learned that the amount of progress we can make at the bargaining table is determined by the amount of power we wield away from it. We also showed definitively to the university that undergraduate ASEs care about our working conditions and our students—and that we’re willing to stand up by the hundreds to fight for them.
While the ratification of the local agreement marks the end of the bargaining process, it also represents the beginning of a new era of organizing within EECS and Data Science. Now that we have secured clarity on paper of our rights and obligations, we will have to work diligently to ensure that our agreement is implemented and enforced. That’s going to require increased communication and education on ASE rights. And to make sure that we make big gains at the next round of bargaining in 2025, we’re going to need to work on building our power—that means stronger organizing, even larger supermajorities of membership in the departments, and building a renewed sense of trust and democracy in the union.
In the coming months, we’ll communicate more about plans to advance the priorities of undergraduate ASEs in the short and long term. If you’re interested in getting involved in that process, please let us know. But for now, we should all take a well-deserved break.
In solidarity,
Gabe Classon
CS 61A uGSI
UAW 2865 steward, EECS undergraduates