Union Vote

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) held elections for Caltech graduate students and postdocs earlier this month to vote on whether they wanted to unionize and be represented by Caltech Grad Researchers and Postdocs United-UAW (CGPU-UAW). With affirmative votes from seventy-six percent of grad students voters (799 out of 1045) and eighty-three percent of postdocs voters (240 out of 290), the Caltech graduate and postdoctoral community has voted to unionize. Seventy-three percent of graduate students (1,045 of 1,439) and fifty-two percent of postdoctoral scholars (290 of 558) came out to vote. On February 15th 2024, the NLRB certified CGPU-UAW to serve as the collective bargaining representative for Caltech grad students and postdocs. Caltech is now one of thirty-seven universities in the United States where graduate students are members of a union. According to the CGPU, Caltech is also the first school where grads and postdocs voted to unionize at the same time.

Caltech union organizers are now preparing to bargain with Caltech administration to negotiate a contract that sets minimum standards for working conditions. CGPU is in the process of forming two new committees: the Working Conditions Research Committee (WCRC) and the Initial Bargaining Demands Committee (IBDC). CGPU will also request nominations and hold elections to decide the representative bargaining team of grad workers. CGPU leaders are encouraging grad students and postdocs to help with the crafting of the best contract possible by coming to organizing committee meetings on Mondays at 5pm (location subject to change), reaching out to any organizer in-person or via email (organize@cgpu.org) to learn more.