Improving Labor Relations for Student Research Assistants:

UCI Grad Students Support SB 201

Current situation: The California Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations Act (HEERA) allows employees, including those who are students, to unionize. However, current law excludes students whose work is considered by the University of California (UC) to be primarily educational in nature. This has led to a situation whereteaching assistants (TAs) and other graduate student workers are represented by a union on UC campuses, while research assistants (RAs) are not eligible for this option.

Problem: As the graduate student government at UC Irvine, we are often asked for advice by students who have employment concerns. When students are TAs, the union can work on their behalf, but for RAs, there is no comparable resource to turn for protection. We hear stories about being overburdened with work, high or unclear expectations, insecurity about their employment, and lack of recourse for exploitation because there is no contract or policy that protects them. Any policies and terms of employment for RA appointments, which are separate from a student’s own research and education, are set just by the professor hiring the students. International students and students without external financial support are particularly vulnerable to exploitation, as professors can terminate their employment for any reason. This leaves students worried that they must do anything asked of them, even above reasonable expectations, or else they may lose their ability to stay at the university.

Purpose: The graduate student government of UC Irvine, which represents over 5,000 graduate students living in Orange County and surrounding areas, strongly urges you to vote in support of SB 201.

Important facts:

  • SB 201 does not create a new union or require students to unionize. It just allows previously excluded student employees the opportunity to do so if they so choose.
  • A study in 2013 that looked at PhD students at 4 unionized and 4 non-unionized universities found that the students at universities with a union reported higher levels of personal and professional support, had higher stipends, and felt similar levels of academic freedom relative to students not represented by a union (Rogers, Eaton, and Voos, 2013; doi:10.1177/001979391306600208)
  • Although SB 201 most directly impacts graduate students, it would extend to other student workers, including undergraduate research assistants, who previously were unable to vote to form a union.
  • Most graduate students are supported in multiple forms throughout their time in graduate school, and may move back and forth between TA and RA roles. Thus their coverage under the contract and their expected pay may change even within the same year.

For more information, please contact:

Rebecca Hofstein Grady, Legislative Director for UC Irvine’s Associated Graduate Students