UAW members ratify contracts with UC, bringing end to threat of large-scale strike | UC

Update 03/14/2026: This article was updated with a comment from a UC Office of the President press release.

Update 03/20/2026: This article was updated to reflect that UC-UAW members ratified their contracts. 

Members of three units of UAW voted overwhelmingly to ratify their contracts, bringing gains such as pay increases, a legal consulting fund for international workers and more.

The ratification means UAW will avoid what would have been a strike of more than 40,000 graduate student instructors, researchers and student services staff throughout the UC system.

According to an email sent by Nathaniel Roethler, who is on the UAW 4811 Elections Committee, 91.5% of 21,161 UC-UAW workers from across the three units voted to ratify the contract.

From UAW 4811, which represents academic student employees, 89.2% of the 15,976 voters were in favor of ratification of their contract.

An even larger proportion of UAW non-academic workers voted to ratify the contract, with a yes vote from 99.2% of student services and advising professionals, as well as 97.9% from research and public service professionals.

At UC Berkeley specifically, 90% of 3,585 academic student employees voted yes on ratification. Across all UC campuses and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, at least 85% of academic student employees voted yes, with the exception of those from UC Santa Cruz, where only 33.9% voted to ratify the contract.

Original story, “UC-wide strike averted after tentative agreement with UAW” published 3/13/2026: 

A UC systemwide strike will likely be averted after UAW and the University of California reached a tentative agreement Friday after seven months of negotiations.

UAW 4811, the union that represents 48,000 student employees, postdocs and academic researchers across the UC system, announced the tentative agreement in an email Friday night. 

Workers will vote on the proposed contract between Tuesday, March 17 and Friday, March 20. 

Union officials representing UAW’s Student Services and Advising Professionals and Research and Public Service Professionals sector also reached a tentative agreement with the UC system. These contracts — separate from UAW 4811 — provide minimum raises of 27.8% raises over the next four years through the creation of a new “step wage system.” 

Additionally, SSAPs and RPSPs may gain protections on health insurance premium increases, job security, hybrid and remote work and “measures to prevent unreasonable workloads.”

“With this Tentative Agreement, Academic Student Employees have compelled management to side with workers and not with Trump,” said the UAW 4811 ASE Bargaining Committee in an email. “This TA delivers on the priorities ASEs have fought for including job security, immigration protections, and fair and stable pay.”

The tentative agreement includes raises ranging from 12% to 45% for teaching assistants and graduate student researchers, while hourly workers could receive raises averaging 21% and reaching up to 62% over the duration of the contract.

Additionally, the contract would create a $400,000 legal consulting fund for international workers, guarantee the right for workers to be rehired after losing and regaining their visa statuses and ensure “non-collaboration with ICE.”

“We are grateful to achieve agreements that mutually benefit the University’s academic student employees and new staff units,” said Missy Matella, UCOP associate vice president for systemwide employee and labor relations, in a press release. “These agreements reflect the tireless work of the bargaining teams on both sides of the table that remained committed to productive, good-faith negotiations throughout bargaining.”

Union leaders credited the agreement to organizing efforts by thousands of workers across the UC system, including a “last chance” practice picket Thursday across the UC system, during which thousands of union members rallied ahead of the now-averted strike decision. 

“Because tens of thousands of ASEs organized, took action, and stood together, we won a tentative agreement that sets a new standard for higher ed contracts across the country,” the email read.

Other contract provisions include increased childcare benefits, the elimination of pay disparities between UC campuses and the standardization of half-time appointments for Ph.D. and MFA teaching assistants and graduate student researchers.

A full draft of the tentative agreement has yet to be released.

Chrissa Olson contributed to this article.