On January 13, 2020, an arbitrator ruled in favor of the United Auto Workers, Local 2865 (UAW 2865) a union that represents tutors, graduate student instructors, and teaching assistants at University of California schools, in a grievance UAW 2865 filed against the University of California Berkeley in August 2017. The grievance stemmed from Berkeley’s appointment practices for the graduate student instructors and teaching assistants in its electrical engineering and computer science departments.
Specifically, Berkeley placed graduate student instructors and teaching assistants on either eight-hour or ten-hour a week appointments. According to the collective bargaining agreement between Berkeley and UAW 2865, graduate student instructors and teaching assistants on eight-hour appointments received just an hourly salary, while graduate student instructors and teaching assistants on ten-hour appointments also received tuition remission and child care benefits and became eligible for health benefits as well. UAW 2865 contended that Berkeley employed too many graduate student instructors and teaching assistants on eight-hour, rather than ten-hour, appointments to avoid providing the additional benefits.
The arbitrator’s ruling requires Berkeley to hire all graduate student instructors and teaching assistants for ten-hour appointments and to stop denying tuition remission going forward. The ruling also requires Berkeley to distribute retroactive fee remission benefits to affected current and former graduate student instructors and teaching assistants, which according to UAW 2865 are those who taught in the electrical engineering and computer science departments in 2017 or later.